CHAPTER 5.. Geographical Position of Santo Domingo.--Physical Geography.--the

Geographical position of Santo Domingo.--Physical geography.--The inhabitants.--Mixed races.--Negroes and Indians compared.--Women. --Establishment of the Chontales Gold-Mining Company.--My house and garden.--Fruits.--Plantains and bananas; probably not indigenous to America: propagated from shoots: do not generally mature their seeds.--Fig-trees.--Granadillas and papaws.--Vegetables. --Dependence of flowers on insects for their fertilisation.--Insect plagues.--Leaf-cutting ants: their method of defoliating trees: their nests.--Some trees are not touched by the ants.--Foreign trees are very subject to their attack.--Method of destroying the ants.--Migration of the ants from a nest attacked.--Corrosive sublimate causes a sort of madness amongst them.--Indian plan of preventing them ascending young trees.--Leaf-cutting ants are fungus-growers and eaters.--Sagacity of the ants.