1894
March 3
St. Vincent
  We reached St. Vincent at midnight and spent to-day
there, the steamer lying at anchor in the open
roadstrack a few hundred yards from the shore.

  Chapman and I landed about  9 o'clock and walked
to the Botanic Garden which is on a steep hillside well
outside the town and on the edge of an extensive
forest which flows down from the wooded mountains
above and beyond. It is a pretty place with large
trees and many interesting shrubs and plants which
are the result of but three years growth for although
the garden was begun nearly a century ago it was
given up for a long period and has only just
been brought under cultivation again.
  The gardener is a well-educated and very agreeable
young Englishman fresh from Kew and most
enthusiastic about his plants and trees. He showed us
many curious and interesting things, among them
a velvet tamarind said to be the only one in America,
a nutmeg tree covered with nearly ripe nutmegs, the
vine (very like our clematis in general appearance)
from which black pepper is derived, and a cannon
ball tree with its remarkable flowers and ponderous
fruit. He had a small bed of our asparagus which
seemed to be doing well and the sight of which
warmed our hearts.
  Arrowroot is extensively cultivated on this island.
We saw acres of the closely growing plants which
resembled our Pontederia as much as anything
else.