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236 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 
A mile from Kingston, at the base of the hills, is 
Government House, the residence of the lieutenant- 
governor of St. Vincent. It is in the center of grounds 
formerly used as a garden of acclimatization for tropi- 
cal plants and trees not indigenous to the West Indies. 
The garden was opened in 1763, but given up in 1828, 
and many of the plants removed to Trinidad. Here 
are still found the teak, mahogany, almond, screw- 
pine, "Malacca-apple, nutmeg, clove, cinnamon, pi- 
mento and areca palm, a grove of palmistes, bread- 
fruit, bread-nut and cannon-ball trees. The latter is 
very interesting, growing to a great height, with large 
bole and branches, along which grow twigs and shoots 
so thickly that they resemble a vine entwining them; 
on these grow great flowers which look like the 
sarracenias of northern climes; stamens and _ pistils 
are packed away inside haif a dozen protecting petals. 
The petals are of a delicate rose-color, recurved upon 
themselves ; when the blossom bursts it looks as rough 
as the bristling burr of a chestnut. The fruit is as 
large as a six-pounder cannon-ball; it is spherical, 
russet brown in color, and very heavy. They ar® 
continually growing and dropping; and are of no 
apparent use except to stir idle people into activity, by 
falling on their heads — people who might otherwise 
' be tempted to recline beneath the tree. 
Mango and cinnamon, introduced into Jamaica by 
Lord Rodney, were sent here also; nutmeg from 
Cayenne, in 1809; clove from Martinique, in 1787, 
where it was introduced from the East Indies. It was 
thought that these species would become abundant and 
profitable, but such seems not to have been the case. 
The nutmeg has best repaid the efforts made for its 
