84 



January 9. 



The sensitive plant is a great nuisance in Jamaica : 

 it over-runs the pastures, and, being armed with very 

 strong sharp prickles, it wounds the mouths of the 

 cattle, and, in some places, makes it quite impos- 

 sible for them to feed. Various endeavours have 

 been made to eradicate this inconvenient weed, but 

 none as yet have proved effectual. 



January 10. 

 The houses here are generally built and arranged 

 according to one and the same model. My own is 

 of wood, partly raised upon pillars ; it consists of 

 a single floor: a long gallery, called a piazza, ter- 

 minated at each end by a square room, runs the 

 whole length of the house. On each side of the 

 piazza is a range of bed-rooms, and the porticoes of 

 the two fronts form two more rooms, with balus- 

 trades, and flights of steps descending to the lawn. 

 The whole house is virandoed with shifting Vene- 

 tian blinds to admit air ; except that one of the 

 end rooms has sash-windows on account of the 

 rains, which, when they arrive, are so heavy, and 

 shift with the wind so suddenly from the one side 

 to the other, that all the blinds are obliged to be 

 kept closed j consequently the whole house is in 

 total darkness during their continuance, except the 

 single sash-windowed room. There is nothing un- 

 derneath except a few store-rooms and a kind of 



