489 BOTANICAL INFORMATION, 
and palms. Many of these were planted by Poivre, who I 
believe was the founder of it. It appeared to me, however, 
to be kept in very bad order, the greater part of it more re- 
sembling a jungle than a Botanic garden. Some of the 
finest plants I observed in it are those which M. Bojer in- 
troduced to the island from Madagascar. One of these is 
the remarkable Bignonia articulata, Lam. Two others which 
grow to the size of trees are the Colvillea racemosa and 
Poinciana regia, which have now become common in the 
island, and are its greatest ornaments. I take plants of both 
of them to Ceylon with me, along with many other things 
which Mr. Newman put up for me in a Ward's case. He 
possesses growing plants of the curious Hydrogeton fene- 
stralis, The so-called tombs of Paul and Virginia being 
only at a short distance from the Garden, I visited them, 
and found near them a few plants that interested me very 
much. One of these is the Pederia sessiliflora, which I 
afterwards found to be very common even high upon the 
mountains. One day Mr. Newman accompanied me on an 
excursion to a range of hills about four miles distant from 
the Garden, called Bonamour, where I made a pretty large 
collection. The woods which cover these hills are compose 
of small trees, a very few only of which were in flower, as 
the rainy season had set in buta short time before our ar- 
rival. In the more shady places, the ground and the trunks 
of the trees were covered with ferns, consisting of Drynaria 
vulgaris, which grew in the greatest abundance, i i 
rhizophorum, fine plants of Asplenium Nidus-Avis, a handsome 
species of Smith's new genus Isotoma, a simple-leaved P oly- 
podium, Pteris lanuginosa et hastata, a Vittaria, a Nephr olepiss 
very like one of my Brazilian ones, Aspidium propinguum» 
a creeping Lycopodium, and a Mertensia. On the stems — 
the trees I found a few kinds of Orchidee, one of them Am. 
grecum aphyllum, a most remarkable plant, but not in flower - 
The others, though in flower, I am unable to determine, 7°" 
not having my books at hand. One of them, however, I canne" 
