664 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 



[March i, 1884, 



delicate bright green foliage ; the mahogany tree, the rose- 

 wood tree of India, the table-wood tree from the Sey- 

 chelles, the Morinda citritoUa, the anisette tree of Japan, 

 the camphor tree ; the common indiarubber tree, with its 

 wide spread of leaves and its vast network of roots upon 

 the surface of the ground ; the Makals tree, wondrously 

 slow of growth, and one of the oldest forest trees of 

 Mauritius; the Badamier, or almond of Mauritius, with 

 straight perpendicular branches starting up from those 

 that lie horizontally ; the Moreton Bay pine, in all its 

 luxuriance ; the deceitful fern U-ee, so named by Linnajus, 

 who was misled by the appearance of its leaves ; the mango 

 tree ; the Indian marking-ink nut tree ; the allspice of the 

 West Indies, also with its roots well above the surface; 

 the strychnos uux vomica tree ; the Litchi of China, and 

 scores of others, aU large, matured, well-grown h-ees, not 

 puuy specimens that requke daily attention. Here is the 

 Tiiughinia venenifera, or ordeal-tree of Madagascar, with 

 which the authorities of that cheerful country are wont 

 to test the iunocence or guilt of a prison. He is pre- 

 sented with a bean— about the size of an almond— being 

 the kernel of a fruit as large as a hen's egg, and this 

 bean he has to chew. If he survives he is innocent, if 

 he dies he is guilty. As a single bean conlains enough 

 poison to kill £0 men, the chances, it will be agreed, 

 are not overwhelmingly in his fa\our. Here is a Hibiscus 

 discovered by Livingstone in South Africa, but not yet 

 named. Here is the sour-gourd Baobab, or monkey 

 bread tree ff Senegal, also connected with the 

 great explorer, for it was under a very fine .specimen 

 of this tree that ho buried his wife on the banks of the 

 Zambesi. Here ar« a group of hideous euphorbias, whose 

 fleshy, dull-green, all-but-leafless stems exude a poisonous 

 milk when stabbed, milk used by the Africans to make 

 their arrows and their assegais deadly weapons without 

 tail. Here is a great American aloe, between whose leaves 

 a big, overgrown spider — large even for Mauritius, ai d 

 they have some monsters here — has spun a series of webs. 

 She resents interference with her vested rights, and fairly 

 leaps at our intrusive walking sticks ; but she has to 

 succumb, and with her a capsule full of tiny reproduc- 

 tions of herself. Here is a Madagascar tig-tree — here 

 a grove of Madagasear nutmegs, the ouler enve- 

 lope, like a flat yellow plum, just bursting apart to 

 show the scarlei mace and dark-brown m,i within. A 

 pretty sight these ripe nutmegs when on the tree, but 

 when picked the mace speedily turns to a dull yellow, and 

 thence to the colour so familiar in the spice-boxes of our 

 housewives. Here is a patch of the true sarsaparilla^ — 

 here a great queer-leaved creeper, the Monstera de- 

 liciosa of Mexico, "swarming" up the trunk of an 

 antediluvian badamier. Here is the creeping rubber' plant 

 of Madagascar (A'aliea Madagascariensis); and here the 

 Bois colophane bat:ird, or Bursera obtusifoiia of old 

 Mamitius, from which the negroes were wont to make 

 their torches, its wood being highly resinous and inflam- 

 mable. Here are jack-fruit trees, the fruit itself, a foot 

 or mote in length, growing directly from the trunk. Here 

 are durians, and here are colossal cinnamons, whose aromatic 

 leaves we taste to our gratification. 



But the chief glory of the gardens consists in its wealth 

 of palms. No wonder Messrs. Besant & Kice, in one 

 of their capital novels, christened Mauritius Palmiste 

 Island. It is, indeed, the very home of this beautiful tree, 

 and here at Pamplcmousses are varieties from all the 

 corners of the earth. Let me enumerate a few as seen 

 in the long avenues through which we pass. The coconut 

 palm; that i.s already familiar to us outside these grounds. 

 The date-pfilni, whose produce is dear to every schoolboy 

 worthy of the name. The wine-palm ot the Moluccas, 

 which furnishes arrack to the thirsty Indian. The sugar- 

 palm, a very useful tree, for in addition to the sugar 

 obtained frum it, the coarse black fibre which hangs in 

 clusters round its trunk is made into broc nis, or. teased 

 and broken up, is an excellent stuffing for mattresses. 

 The wrinkled sago-palm. The dome-palm of Kgypt, with 

 its pear-shaped fruit, containing a hard interior like 

 black ivory. Tlie rofia-palm, Siigus ruliia of Madagascar, 

 with its 'iO-ft. long leaves used by the natives as rafters 

 for their huts, since the rofia withstands the attacks of 

 the white ant. The lower fronds of these tall palms arc 

 cat off at Pamplemousses, as the tree grows, and are 



sold to the Malabars for 25 cents eachr The tree itself 

 has a very handsome appearance, while the liower spathes 

 curline: down from above like big brown elephant trunks, 

 and then opening out to drop their showers of seeds, are 

 extremely curious. The palm of Peru, from which the 

 cabbage-tree hats are made, the young fronds only being 

 used, and the whole process of plaiting carried on imder 

 running water, also attracts our special attention. So, 

 too, do a fine row ot young talipot palms, with their 

 thick fleshy leaf-stalks, or petiol's, 10 it. long, and armed 

 with teeth on the edges, and their great cluster.s ot large 

 leaves. The peculiarity of the talipot ij that so soon as 

 it, flowers it dies. The pihus known as Verschatt'eltia 

 spleudida, growing here to about 40 ft. high, are natives 

 of the Seychelles. At first sight they seem to be propped 

 up by a number of sight buttresses, but on closer ex- 

 amination one finds that the tree has a habit of throw- 

 ing out a number of roots from its trunk about 3 ft. above 

 the ground, and when tliese roots have struck downward 

 and secured a firm hold, the trunk itself ceases to be 

 dependent on terra firma, so much so that one can piis.s 

 one's hand between the earth and the body of the tree, 

 whicli is now carried only by the slender roots. Yet this 

 species, we are told, withstands the hurricane better than 

 any of its compeers. The Latt palm of the Seychelles 

 and the Nephrosperma van Houtteuna of the same islands 

 are also here in numbers ; but of the Deckenia nobili» and 

 the Koscheria melanochretes the I'amplemousses-gardens 

 possess the only specimens — one of each — out of Seychelles, 

 A variety of small palm, indigenous only to Kound Islands 

 25 miles to tlie north-east of Mauritius, is also grown 

 here. The gargouet palms, which Colonel (otherwise 

 " Chinese ") Gordon cliristeued the Armstrong gun palms, 

 bear an extraordinary resemblance in their bole to one of 

 those huge cannon placed upright with the miuizle in 

 the air. 



Very beautiful are the fan palms, and somewhat similar 

 in shape but larger are the " traveller's trees " of 

 Madagasear. lUsing from the ground with a thick suc- 

 culent stem the tree sends out long broad leaves, on either 

 side, the stalk of the leaf being six or eight feet long, 

 and the leaf itself as much as seven feet long by three 

 broad. The leaves spread out in fan-shape, are grooved 

 upon their upper surface, and tiius serve to catch the rain, 

 which runs down the leaf stalk and so into cavities where the 

 stalk joins on to the stem. Here the water remams perfectly 

 pure and fresh, and may be tapped at any moment by 

 the thirsty traveller. By the aid of Mr. Scott's penknife 

 we tested the trees at several points and aiwajs obtained 

 a good jet of pellucid water, entirely free from any dis- 

 agreeable flavour. The trees abound in Madagascar, and 

 are useful in many other ways besides acting as reservoirs. 

 A recent tourist there says : — 



" In Madagascar this tree might with propriety be 

 called the builder's tree rather than the tra\eller's tree. 

 Its leaves form the thatch of all the houses i n the eastern 

 sides of the island. The stems of its leaves lorm the 

 partitions and often sides of the houses ; and the hard 

 outside bark of the elder trees is stripped from the innt r 

 and soft part, and having been beaten out flat is laid for 

 flooring ; and I have seen the entire floor ot a long well- 

 built house covered with this bark, each piece being at 

 least IS hi. wide and 20 ft. or 3U ft. long. The leaf, when 

 gi-een, is used as a wrapper for packages, and keeps out 

 the rain. Large quantities are also sold every morning; 

 in the markets, as it serves the purpose of tablecloth, 

 dishes, and plates at meals, and, fokled into certain forms 

 is used instead of spoons and drinking vessels." 



The tree evidently, like the heroine of the old-time 

 novel, is as good as it is beautiful. At Pamplemousses it 

 grows in large clusters, from the baby palm a few feet 

 high to the tall and wondrously graceful fully-developed 

 tree, whose leaf-clusters are tar beyond the reach of lad- 

 derless humanity. Besides all the palms already described, 

 I have yet to mention three or four others. Cabbage 

 palms — the Uictyospeima alba of tlie island of Kodriguez — 

 have an avenue all to thimselves, and are a noble sight ; 

 but the critiie dc la crime ot avenues in these gardens, 

 and jirobably in the world, is that formed of the Koyal 

 palms of Cuba, Oreodoxa regia. Towering aloft to a 

 height of CO or 70 feet, with their smooth, round boles 

 in sime cases 11 ft. ik cijcumfiitnce, tlese mx;^nJScia 



