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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



paths ; snowdrops would rise in little clumps 

 upon the grassy lawn; bee-orchids, gorse, lych- 

 nis, cuckoo-pints, hyacinths, snapdragons, corn- 

 poppies, and meadow saffrons, would bear the 

 aspect of rare exotics ; while the unwonted sight 

 of fields purpled with clover and heath, or gilded 

 with mustard and charlock, would raise an in- 

 voluntary exclamation of pleased surprise. In 

 the cages around, the strange animals of that 

 distant land might be exhibited to the eyes of 

 visitors. The red deer of the Highlands, the 

 fallow deer of English parks, the wild cattle of 

 Chillingham, would represent the larger rumi- 

 nants. The badger, the otter, the fox, the wea- 

 sel, the marten, the polecat, and the ferret, 

 would illustrate the carnivores. Then the tiny 

 harvest-mouse, the long-nosed shrew, the prickly 

 hedgehog, the soft - furred mole, the nimble 

 scmirrel, the hare, and the pretty little rabbit, 

 would give a delightful idea of our smaller mam- 

 mals. As for birds, what a beautiful picture of 

 our woodlands or ponds the visitor would gain 

 from an aviary filled with herons, swans, red- 

 breasts, yellow - hammers, lapwings, pheasants, 

 bullfinches, curlews, kingfishers, golden thrushes, 

 woodpeckers, and sea-gulls ! Adders, vipers, 

 blind-worms, and lizards, would bask in their 

 glass cases ; while the aquariums would swarm 

 with crested newts, speckled trout, silvery min- 

 nows, banded perch, shining carp, and quaint, 

 monstrous-headed miller's-thumbs. As he sur- 

 veyed the whole, the tropical spectator would 

 naturally exclaim, " What a lovely country this 

 England must be ! " And in my humble opinion 

 he would be quite right, too. 



Now, all these varied and beautiful objects 

 are roughly selected from a single European isl- 

 and. If we were to add flowers and animals 

 from all temperate climates, such as the Alpine 

 rhododendrons and gentians, the Canadian trilli- 

 ums and columbines, the heaths and geraniums 

 of the Cape, we should have a garden of trans- 

 cendent beauty, which not even the tropics them- 

 selves could outdo. But when we form our ideal 

 of tropical scenery, we similarly pick out from 

 all the equatorial world every beautiful tree, 

 shrub, herb, flower, beast, bird, or butterfly, and 

 put them together into a fanciful picture of wav- 

 ing trees, hanging creepers, and gorgeous colored 

 blossoms, surrounded by groups of brilliant ani- 

 mals. Nor is this all ; we think of the palms 

 and the tree-ferns as we see them under Sir Jo- 

 seph Hooker's charge, with all the branches care- 

 fully tended and every dead leaf picked off at 

 once by watchful myrmidons. But a palm in its 



native state has generally a dirty ring of decay- 

 ing boughs beneath its green crown; while a 

 tree-fern can scarcely be seen through the foul, 

 mouldering fronds that cling around its musty 

 stem. Cruel, perhaps the reader thinks, to dis- 

 enchant him of his pretty dream ; but is it not 

 worth something, after all, to know that our own 

 home is far lovelier than these distant lands ? 

 Why need any man wish to search the mountain- 

 passes of Java or Madagascar when he can roam 

 at will through Dovedale and Aberglasllyn ? why 

 need he hanker after Trinidad or Hawaii when 

 he can wander over the purple moor-sides of the 

 Grampians, and gather bunches of spotted snake- 

 heads in the flowery levels of Iffley meadows ? 



Of course, in Jamaica, as in every other 

 tropical country, we may find a fair sprinkling 

 of handsome flowers and brilliant birds. The 

 night-flowering cereus, with its great, white hang- 

 ing blossoms and rich, luscious scent, forms the 

 very ideal of a tropical plant ; bright-colored or- 

 chids grow here and there on solitary trees in 

 the remoter woods ; and a few cultivated hybis- 

 cus-bushes surround the negro huts. Humming- 

 birds flit rapidly from tree to tree ; while a pretty 

 little red-and-green tody, the tropical robin, may 

 sometimes be seen perching on a wayside bough. 

 Golden lizards sun themselves on the trunks, 

 protruding now and then the orange pouches 

 beneath their sky-blue necks ; burnished beetles 

 crawl among the underwood ; and butterflies as 

 lovely as our own brimstones, emperors, pea- 

 cocks, or admirals, gleam through the foliage of 

 the mountain-sides. All these, and more than 

 these, I freely grant. But they only count as a 

 small item in the total account, far less numer- 

 ous than the corresponding beauties of our own 

 island. Thousands of such plants and animals 

 have been sedulously gathered from all countries 

 to form our great European collections ; and, 

 therefore, I confidently say, if you wish to see 

 the tropics in their glory, take a cab or a Jiacre, 

 and go to Regent's Park or to the Jardin des 

 Plantes. 



Certain other good points about the tropics I 

 allow with equal readiness. Undoubtedly fine 

 sunsets are commoner on the average than in 

 temperate climates, though even here the differ, 

 ence is one of frequency rather than of kind. I 

 have watched the great red orb sinking behind 

 Bardsey Island, in Carnarvonshire, or dipping 

 into the calm bosom of Lake Ontario, with just 

 as grand a circle of golden or crimson clouds as 

 any that ever met ray eyes in the charmed circle 

 of equatorial earth. But such displays, excep- 



