180 THE MEMORABLE. 



tioning some characteristic feature of each. To a learned 

 traveller this, possibly, may communicate some definite 

 idea ; but who else, from seeing a plant in a herbarium, 

 can imagine its appearance when growing in its native 

 soil? Who, from seeing choice plants in a hothouse, can 

 magnify some into the dimensions of forest- trees, and 

 crowd others into an entangled jungle? Who, when 

 examining, in the cabinet of the entomologist, the gay, 

 exotic butterjfiies, and singular cicadas, will associate with 

 these lifeless objects, the ceaseless harsh music of the 

 latter, and the lazy flight of the former, — the sure accom- 

 paniments of the still, glowing noonday of the tropics ? 

 It is when the sun has attained its greatest height, that 

 such scenes should be viewed : then the dense, sjDlendid 

 foliage of the mango hides the ground with its darkest 

 shade, whilst the upper branches are rendered, from the 

 profusion of light, of the most brilliant green. In the 

 temperate zones the case is different : the vegetation there 

 is not so dark or so rich ; and hence the rays of the 

 declining sun, tinged of a red, purple, or bright yellow 

 colour, add most to the beauties of those climes. 



" When quietly walking along the shady pathways, and 

 admirino^ each successive view, I wished to find lanouao-e 

 to express my ideas. Epithet after epithet was found too 

 weak to convey to those who have not visited the inter- 

 tropical regions the sensations of delight which the mind 

 experiences. I have said that the plants in a hothouse 

 fail to communicate a just idea of the vegetation, yet I 

 must recur to it. The land is a great, wild, untidy, 



