A PALM TEMPLE. 175 



weltered in mirage ; while stretcliing out into it, some half a 

 mile off, a grey promontory into a green sea, was an object 

 which filled me witli more awe and admiration than any 

 thing which I had seen in the island. 



It was a wood of Moriche palms ; like a Greek temple, 

 many hundred yards in length, and, as I guessed, nearly 

 a hundred feet in height ; and, like a Greek temj)le, ending 

 abruptly at its full height. The grey columns, perfectly 

 straight and parallel, supported a dark roof of leaves, grey 

 underneath, and reflecting above, from their broad fans, 

 sheets of pale glittering light. Such serenity of grandeur 

 I never saw in any group of trees ; and when we rode up 

 to it, and tethered our horses in its shade, it seemed to 

 me almost irreverent not to kneel and w^orship in that 

 temple not made with hands. 



When ^\e had gazed our fill, v/e set hastily to work to 

 collect plants, as many as the lateness of the hour and 

 the scalding heat would allow. A glance showed the truth 

 of Dr. Krueger's ^vords : 



" It is impossible to describe the feelings of the botanist 

 when arriving at a field like this, so much unlike anything 

 he has seen before. Here are full-blowinsf laro^e Orchids, 

 with red, white, and yellow flowers ; and among the grasses, 

 smaller ones of great variety, and as great scientific interest 

 Melastomaceous plants of various genera ; Utricularias, Dro- 



