THE MULE ROAD AND GUADUAS. 



107 



our Southern States, the fruit of the common passion-flower, which 

 is so abundant in our corn-fields in the early fall. It owes its 

 Spanish name to the fact that, like the pomegranate, the portion 

 that is eaten is the pulp around the seeds. It was my experience 

 to be greatly disappointed in the fruits of the tropics ; but as this 

 disappointment was only in those fruits which I had never before 

 tasted, it may be that in time my taste would have been educated 

 up to the point of liking them. The oranges, pine-apples, and 

 bananas were incom- 

 parably superior to any 

 that we get, and I be- 

 came in time very fond 

 of the nispero ; but 

 after once tasting the 

 mango I had an aver- 

 sion to it amounting to 

 disgust, and were I to 

 describe the flavors of 

 the many other fruits 

 that I tried, I would 

 say that they varied 

 from that of a pump- 

 kin to that of our paw- tired out. 

 paw. There being no 



frost in this climate, some plants which regularly die every winter 

 with us, grow here indefinitely. Such are the Pcdma ckristl, or 

 castor-oil plant, which becomes a fair-sized tree, and cotton. I saw 

 several cotton plants which might almost be called small trees ; 

 however, the bolls were very small, and produced an inferior cotton. 



The principal forage for horses and mules is young sugar-cane, 

 which is chopped up with a machete into little pieces of an inch in 

 length. The animals are very fond of it ; and it seems to suit 

 them, for, notwithstanding their hard labor, they all look sleek and 

 in good condition. 



