102 THE NORTTTERX MOUNTAiy.-(. 



the last SpaiiiVli governor of tliis island. It is indeed 

 the jewel of these woods. A low straggling tree carries, 

 on long pendent In-anches, leaves like a Spanish chestnut, a 

 foot and more in length ; and at the ends of the branches, 

 lon<T corymbs of yellow flowers. But it is not the flowers 

 theraselyes which make the glory of the tree. As the flower 

 opens, one calyx-lobe, by a rich vagary of nature, grows into 

 a leaf three inches long, of a splendid scarlet ; and the whole 

 end of each branch, for two feet or more in length, blazes 

 amomr the oreen folias^e till you can see it and wonder at it 

 a quarter of a mile away. This is " the resplendent Caly- 

 cophyllum," elaborated, most probably, by long physical 

 processes of variation and natural selection into a form 

 equally monstrous and beautiful. There are those who wdll 

 smile at my superstition, if I state my belief that He who 

 makes all tilings make themselves may have used those very 

 processes of variation and natural selection for a final cause ; 

 and that the final cause w^as, that He might delight Himself 

 in the beauty of one more strange and new creation. Be it 

 so. I can only assume that their minds are, for the present 

 at least, differently constituted from mine. 



We reached the head of the glen at last, and outlet from 

 the amphitheatre of wood there seemed none. But now I be- 

 gan to find out %vhat a tropic mountain-path can be, and what a 

 AYest Indian horse can do. We arrived at the lower end of a 



