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we would be scared one nuisance which we have here in Port of Spain, namely 

 the horrible damage done by the termites to books, paper, furniture, woodwork 

 of all kind, wooden floors, sidewalls of buildings, etec. Home times one touches 

 a picture frame, wall maps, door jambs, etec. which looked quite solid and all 

 of a sudden crumble to pieces as if they were made out of >aper. Theyalso destroy 

 plant collections. An enormous amount of American wood, planks and boards is 

 being used here for building houses and is being imported. 



There is certainly a Cissus among my Vitaceae. Aifeo young people are 

 affected by the temperature changes here, as for instance the hea4 gardener 

 at the Botanical Garden who caraa to work here only two years ago from Kew 

 and can stand the heat well, but complains some times of the stiffness in his 

 fingertips. Even though this happens when the temperature falls only from 72° 

 to 68°, it does not happen if the temperature is higher and falls from 78° to 

 7^°, even though there is the same difference of four degrees. 



I learned from a very dependable source, there are no longer any pure, 

 unmixed Caribbeans here in Trinidad and even the descendants of this mixed race 

 are very rare. 



In your letter you seem to be of the opinion that my orange tree bears ripe 

 fruit all year round. I don't believe I indicated that in my letters. In the 

 summer of 1880 we had the fttet ripe orange on September 2nd and in March l88l f 

 I picked the last dozen; that means seven months. The entire ancmmsoc number was 

 1285. I have read in books that the orange tree has a full crop only every 

 second Jtear and rests one year in between. That is also what my orange tree did 

 previously, but by loosening the soil around it and with good treatment, it seems 

 to bear, a* much fruit this year (l88l), perhaps even more, than last year. 



About three weeks ago I sent five sets of ray phanerogams to looker; at the 

 Kame tijnejl wrote to Gray. 



I am 'glad that Letterrnan has become such an eager and energetic collector 

 and observer, especially, since as you say, I gave him the first push. If one 

 thinks that the population in the United States during the last census amounted 

 to fifty millions, one can imagine the work of future generations in all phases 

 of scienpfe. 



Perhaps you will be interested to learn something about the last census 

 in Trinidad which took place on April klf l88l. 



Total number of population 153 t 128. In 1857 the total population amounted to 



77,500, it doubled during the last Zk years. 





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