- 49 - 
1894 
March 3 
St. Vincent. 
We reached St. Vincent at midnight and spent to-day 
there, the steamer lying at anchor in the open roadstead 
a few hundred yards from shore. 
Chapman and I landed about 9 o’clock and walked to 
*t 
the Botanic Garden which is on a steep hillside well out¬ 
side 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 inter¬ 
esting things, among them a velvet tamarind, said to be 
the only one in America, a century tree covered with nearly 
ripe , , 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 Pondeteria as much as anything else. 
