OF AN EXPEDITION TO MADAGASCAR. 59 
flow into a hole at the root of the tree. The natives procure their 
india-rubber from a trailing and climbing plant, whose order I am 
unacquainted with: it has thick cordate leaves, pear-shaped and 
-sized fruit, native name * Vaughina." (Fruit and india-rubber sent 
in box No. 4.) The Ficus elastica is found along the sea-board 
route, and a Theophrasta; but I am not aware that the Malagasy 
have recourse to these. In the journey by the coast the Morads, 
Euphorbias, and Myrtles are well represented. Dense, spreading, 
Box-like trees are held in great respect by the Betsimasaraks (a 
tribe of the south), who resort to these and other shade-affording 
trees, such as Lichis and Mangos, from devotional motives ; and it 
is common to see beneath them the sticks, rags, and bamboos 
which devotees leave after paying their vows to the gods. The 
bamboo generally contains some rum or Betsibeti (the native 
rum) to propitiate the deities in favor of the supplicant who has 
left it. Ferns decorate trees, living and dead, on this part of the 
road; but they are far less varied than in that part which lies 
through the forests, where every tree is covered with lichens and 
mosses, and decayed trunks are shrouded in parasitic growths. 
The Asplenium (Corne de Boeuf; I am ignorant of its specific 
name), a Pteris (?), and several forms of Polypodiwm are most 
common, and many more with which I am unacquainted. Of 
Orchids the Angrecum sesquipedale and superbum are most pro- 
minent and numerous; they grow parasitic and terrestrial, from 
Tamatave, along the coast-line and for 60 miles inland, being lost 
sight of at about the same elevation as the Copal-tree. Three 
smaller species of Angrecum are also found, one sweet-scented, 
with a small white-flowered spike 1 to 1} foot long, and one 
with flowers alternately yellow and white ; also a species of Vanda 
and two of Dendrobium, noticed by Mr. Ellis and pointed out to 
me in districts lying away from our road. 
Growing in the plains to the height of 12 to 14 feet, from 
Tamatave to 20 miles inland, were two species of Daphne—one 
pink and the other white-flowered, both sweet-scented. A most 
conspieuous thriving shrub, a wild Mulberry, is found for the same 
distance ; and the ground is studded with the Vinca rosea and 
Several Acanthads (the same seen in Mauritius), and a blue- 
flowered Lobelia, and many more of whose class or name I am 
ignorant. Whilst the route lies by the lakes, two kinds of Hibiscus 
are conspicuous—one yellow-flowered, the other pink. Both trees 
afford, in their bark, material from which fine twine is made by 
the natives. There is another tree of the same form (with long 
r2 
