66 



PHYSICAL RESOURCES OF JAMAICA. 



mon table vegetables of the United States, ochro, choco, 

 calalue, and a curious variety of salads. Maize and Indian 

 com grow here luxuriantly. The Guinea grass, which is _ 

 superior for grazing purposes to any other, grows wild to 

 the height of five and six feet. 



The island also abounds in dye stuffs, drugs and spices of 

 the greatest value ; to these may be added the aloe, ginger, 

 cochineal, spikenard, liquorice root, castor oil nut, vanilla, 

 peppers of every variet}^, arrow root, ippecacuanha, jalap, 

 cassia, seima, and many others, of which I have no know- 

 ledge. I have already referred to the immense crops of 

 pimento which used to be gathered here, and which in 

 1848, in spite of the general agricultural depression upon 

 the island, amounted to over five millions of pounds. I 

 learned a fact in the natural history of this spice which 

 was new to me, and may be new to many of my readers. 

 It was communicated by Mr. Richard Hill, the colored 

 gentleman to whose accomplishments in natural history I 

 have already alluded. 



The island of Jamaica furnishes nine-tenths of all the 

 pimento that is the subject of commerce throughout the 

 world. And yet, says Mr. Hill, there is not a pimento 

 walk on the island which has been cultivated from seed 

 planted by human hands. On the contrary, all the seed is 

 scattered about with the rejectamenta of the birds, and when 

 it comes up, the bushes and shrubbery by which it happens 



