December 2010 - The Bulletin Magazine

GARDEN CONTINUED FROM PAGE 30
close. Since Taino times, the ripe fruit has been dried to make bottles, scoops and musical instruments.
Columbus was amazed by the Tainos’ elaborate 50 foot canoes made from enormous silk cottonwood trees
(Ceiba pentandra). Each canoe held up to one hundred men; it’s clear that they traveled easily between islands.
Over the past five hundred years, many species have been introduced by traders, slaves and plant hunters. In
1793, Captain Bligh transported 347 breadfruit trees to the Caribbean from the South Seas on the HMS
Providence. The British intended the fruit as cheap and easily grown food for slaves. Tradition has it that the
slaves rebelled against the taste and fed it to the wild pigs they had domesticated. Today it is wildly popular
for Sunday breakfast with the national dish, ackee and saltfish.
Ancient trees still stand in the Jamaican forest: imagine yourself beneath the hanging roots of a spreading
banyan or beside a fully grown mahogany. Want to give a treasured gift to a beloved gardener or to yourself?
Take a trip to the tropics and go memory-hunting with your camera.
Lake Simcoe South Master Gardeners provide free gardening advice. Send your questions to our gardening
hotline at lssmastergardeners@gmail.com
Did you know?
In 1937, the first postage
stamp to commemorate
Christmas was issued
in Austria.
Answers to Trivia on page 24
1. (C): Boris Karloff
2. (C): Pig Pen
3. (D): Professor Hinkle
4. (A): Canada
February Issue: Part 2 – A Passion for Palm Trees
March Issue: Part 3 – Strange and Exotic Tropical Flowers
www.TheBulletinMagazine.com DECEMBER 2010 | The Bulletin 35