Page:Haiti- Her History and Her Detractors.djvu/314

278 Land-crabs, fresh water and sea-turtles are to be had in great abundance and are much sought after as food.

The following is a list of the chief fruits of the country: star-apple, guava, mango, sappodilla or nasebury, peach, plum, West-Indian mammee, orange, tangerine, lime, sweet lemon, bread-fruit, alligator-pear, chestnut, sour-sop, sweet-sop, pineapple, custard-apple, rose-apple, date, wild strawberry, banana, watermelon, muskmelon, grenadilla, sweet-cup, papaw, etc. The lofty cocoanut-tree furnishes the thirsty traveler with cool water of delicious flavor, the interior of the nut, when young, being lined with a soft, sweet, jellylike substance, which hardens with age to the thickness of an inch. The palmetto (palmiste), which abounds in the island, produces an edible shoot, the cabbage palm, which is considered a great delicacy and is prepared as a salad. Port-au-Prince is well known for the fair quality of its vegetables; nowhere can there be found better artichokes, finer green peas, beets and carrots, eggplants, lettuce, turnips, and so great a variety of beans and juicy fruit. Other vegetables grown are yams, plantains, sweet potatoes, etc. Throughout the country the necessities of material life can be easily satisfied; food is wholesome, plentiful, and nourishing. Nature does not limit her bounty to providing Haiti with such things only as are necessary for the bodily wants of its inhabitants. Her prodigality is seen on every hand in the luxuriant foliage which clothes the hills and valleys throughout the entire year with green from the tenderest to the deepest shades, and varied by large flowering-trees and brightly colored leaves, making up scenes of unsurpassed beauty that meet one's gaze at every turn. From January to December flowers bloom in profusion, delighting the eye with a variety of coloring and scenting the air with their fragrance. The atmosphere is often heavy with the perfume of such flowers as jasmine, tuberose, camellia,