64 
BLUEFIELDS. 
without including the very small ones, all closely 
packed together in masses that could be stripped 
bodily from the rock. 
Just on the very brow of the mountain is a small 
plantation devoted chiefly to the Pimento or Allspice. 
At this time, the beginning of February, the groves 
were thickly covered with the green unripe berries, 
just fit to be gathered and dried for exportation ; 
and accordingly a group of children were stationed 
around each tree, one of whom plucked the loaded 
twigs, from which the rest stripped the berries. 
Every part of this elegant tree is aromatic ; the 
wood, the blossoms, the fruit, the leaves; but the 
seeds are especially hot in the mouth. The berries, 
if suffered to ripen, become black, pulpy, and sweet, 
retaining very little of their spicy character. Many 
birds eat them when in this condition ; but even in 
the unripe state, as when I first visited these moun- 
tain-groves, they presented temptations to some. 
Flocks of green Parrots and Parroquets were shooting 
from tree to tree, screaming discordantly as they 
went, but, with the characteristic intelligence of the 
tribe, as quiet as mice the moment they had alighted, 
that no sound might betray their presence, so well 
concealed by the greenness of their plumage, while 
they luxuriously fed upon the aromatic berries. The 
planter, however, was warily marking them with his 
fowling-piece, and at the instant of my passing, he 
brought down a beautiful Yellow-billed Parrot {Psit- 
tacus leucocephalus), which he politely presented to 
me. The Solitaire {Ptilogonys armillatus\ too, and 
the Glass-eye {Merula Jamaicensis)^ both of which. 
