Fieldwork on the Fond-des-Nègres plateau in 1958 and 1959 yielded this inventory of the plants Haitian cultivators use to enclose the house yard, edge paths and mark the limits of holdings, with botanical identifications supplied by specialists at the United States National Museum. Mintz weighs each one. Bromelia pinguin, the pengwen, turns back people and animals and holds packed earth, but it shelters snakes and rats. Kadelab tolerates dry ground and grows into an impassable thicket. Parese matures within months, stands tall and handsome, though goats strip its leaves. Croton and gad mezo serve chiefly as decoration near the door. Sisal shields young saplings and enriches the soil once its roots rot; vetiver marks boundaries and, because rodents leave it alone, makes practical thatch. He then notes what is absent. On slopes cleared by machete and fire, without ploughs, terracing or contour planting, erosion runs unchecked, and extending a familiar practice along ridge lines would cost little.