March i, 1884.] 



THE TROPICAL AGMCULTUHIST. 



66s 



trees stand side by side like the columns of some lovely 

 fairy temple — a house not made with hands — and the visit- 

 or ^s he passes between their giant ranlfs feels an in- 

 vpl untary impulse to remove bis bat and walk bare- 

 headed beneath their over arching glories. The popular 

 fallacy that the age of these trees" may be ascertained by 

 counting the rings so distinctly marked on their trunks is 

 here explained to us. We have been told that each ring 

 represents a year. This can hardly be so when we find 

 — the age of the trees iu question to be 25 years, whereas 

 the y number upwards of 200 rings each. Alas ! even here 

 the hurricanes that have wrought such havoc throughout 

 the island have not spared these kingly palms. Several of 

 them have lost Iheir leafy crowns, and palms, like men, 

 once deprived of their heads, grow no more. 



Leaving these trees, wo walk awhile by the side of the 

 ornamental lakes near the centre of the gardens. Fringed 

 by the loxuriant tropical growth, the mirror-like surface 

 of the water reflects the trees that border it, and every 

 now and then a rnst'c bridge leads across to some en- 

 chanting little island, ringed round with broad-leaved arums 

 planted at regular intervals in the water, with here and 

 there a summerhouse or a pavilion, and here and there 

 cosy seats suited for amorous couples. The gardens are 

 a favourite resort of fashionable picnic parties, and the 

 amount of desperate love-making that takes place in this 

 part of the grounds is, we undei'stand, something almost 

 incredible. Many scores of happy families now flourishing 

 in Mauritius owe their foundation to the whispering winds, 

 the wooing wavelets, and the woodland witcheries of this 

 lovely spot. Sir George Bowen was especially fond of it, 

 and passed much of his time here composing speeches 

 that were afterwards to make his name for ever remem- 

 bered in the island. And a propos of the name of Bowen, 

 not far from here we see the monument erected " to the 

 benefactors of Mauritius." the usage being to engrave 

 their names upon the obelisk after their death. Several 

 ancient and honourable surnames were thus recorded, and 

 Mauritians loved to read the titli'S o'er ; but one fine 

 morning they awoke to the fact that the name of their 

 living Governor figured upon the stone, and that, too, in 

 larger characters than any of the others. And there it 

 remains to this day, and how it got there has never 

 been satisfactorily explained. Those who know the modest 

 and i-etiriug, the truthful and chivalric nature of Sir 

 George, know also that he himself could have had no 

 hand in it. The monument stands in the centre of the 

 broad walk leading to the principal gates, and on either 

 aide are beds full of rare and beautiful plants — azaleas, 

 red, purple, and white, coleus, croton.s, liegonias, marantas, 

 dieffeubacliias, and a thousand other lovely blossoms or 

 leaf-bearers are hero in endless variety. Another walk, of 

 older date, loads between rows of badamiers and mango 

 trees to the ancient chateau of Mon ]'iai.sir, wliere the 

 French Governors of former days used to live, and where 

 many a night of revelry was held. It is no longer used 

 as a vice-regal residence, but the lower rooms are turned 

 into a museum and a bot.anical library respectively, and 

 here we find e.\liibits in course of preparation for the 

 approaching Calcutta Exhibition. 



Near the chateau is an enclosure in which. a^e kept a 

 couple of large tortoises, brought fr{»tn the Seychelles by 

 Colonel Gordon, and i>resented by liim to the gardens. 

 AVe pay the clumsy pair a visit, and, rubbing our sticks 

 smartly on their backs, cause thern to sliuffle about, while 

 the male resents our intrusion with serpent-like hisses. 

 They are fed with chopped-up Jack fruit while we are 

 present, and we rotice that they peck up their food hen- 

 fashion, and bolt it without masticating it. An interest- 

 ing half-acre plantation of the veritable rubber-plant of 

 the Brazils is visited, and we succeed in manufacturing a 

 amall sample of triu; caoutchouc by rolling some of the 

 sap between oiu' figures. Passing through a low hedge 

 of campeehe or logwood we next examine some coffee 

 plants suffering from the IteniiJcia vaxtatri.r, and by the 

 aid of a powerful magnifying-glass are able distinctly to 

 di.scern the fungoid growth that has spread such ruin 

 throughout the eotfee plantations of Oeylou. Returning 

 across the gardens by a differ<Mit series of avenues, we 

 are shown much more that interests and in- 

 structs us. Notably the large seciion set apart asannrs- 

 cry, whence the young trees are supplied to the stale 

 85 



forests now in course of pl.anting. Here are upwards 

 of a million baby eucalypti, to be shortly set 

 out round and about Port Louis and other fever- 

 haunted districts, in the hope that they will not disappoint 

 the high hopes attached to them as malaria exercisers. 

 Here, too, is a fine plantation of cocoa-trees, and we see the 

 large pods familiar to us in Messrs. Epps, Cadbury, and I"'ry's 

 advertisements growing, like the jack-fruit, right out of 

 tl>e trunks of the trees. The pods are, in many instances, 

 five inches in length, and the trees look very healthy. Pass- 

 ing once more by the margin of the lakes we notice shoals 

 of gold fish and gouramis swimming leisurely about. A 

 black swan sails slowly above them, as if iu mourning for her 

 mate, which has lately disappeared. Busy water spiders 

 skim hither and thither, and gauzy-winged dragon flies flit 

 from point to point. Near here, surrounded by a small 

 grove of sago palms, is the so-called monument to Paul and 

 Virginia, but all we can see is a ruined pedestal of brick 

 and stucco, from the top of which an iron rod, once the 

 central support of a vase or statue, but looking now merely 

 like a displaced piece of garden railing, puint.s blankly up- 

 wards. All signs of inscription or date have long since 

 disappeared, and there is absolutely nothing to identify 

 the unsightly ruin with the hero and heroine of St Pierre's 

 romance. Their graves, afterwards shown us in an ad- 

 joining sugar plantation, are equally disappointing, and 

 even less authentic. However, I deem it but my duty to 

 send you a little of the earth. You can mix it with the 

 ink for the issue of The Arffus that contains this article, so 

 that each of your readers may preserve a memento of the 

 unhappy lovers. 



We turn now to another part of the grounds, where a 

 magnificent slope of verdure trends away to yet another lake, 

 with a grand view of distant mountains. Here we see 

 some fine kauri pines, more large cinnamons, sandalwoods, 

 cypresses, and the boinsettia pulcherrima, with its scarlet 

 bracts. And then we descend a zigzag path into a pictur- 

 esque little gully where rare and valuable ferns an- growing 

 iu profusion, and below, in a special wire-protected pond, we 

 see a number of the exquisite lattice-leaf plants nf Mada- 

 gascar — Ouvirandra fenestralis. The structure of the leaf of 

 this plant is curious in the extreme. It is more of a living 

 hbrous skeleton than a leaf. To quote a technical de- 

 scription — " The longitudinal lihres extend iu curved lines 

 along its entire length, and arc united by thread-like fibres 

 or veins crossing them at right angles from side to side, at 

 a short distance from each other. The whole leaf looks as 

 if composed of fine tendrils, wrought after a most regular 

 pattern, so as to resemble a piece of bright green lace or 

 open needlework " The entire plant is under water, and 

 presents a most beautiful appearance. It thrives best iu a 

 running stream. By the time we have finished with the 

 fernery it is getting on towards evening, ^^'e have been several 

 hours wandering round the gardens, we have by no me.'tus 

 exhausted their beauties, but our carri<»le is waiting, and wc 

 must catch the last train to town. A final word or two with 

 our indefatigable conductor, from whom we ascertain that 

 the area of the gardens is 57 acres, w ith 20 acres in course 

 of being added, that they date back far into the last century, 

 and that they cost annually less than £1,500, and we take 

 our leave, firmly convinced that travel where we may we 

 shall never see anything iu point ot matured beauty aud 

 trandeur to smpass the Royal Botanical Gardens of Pample- 

 mousses. — Adelaide Obiervei: 



COCITS WOOD. 



What Box-wood i.s to wood engraver^ Oocus-wood is to 

 musical instrument makers, at least to the makers of wind 

 instn.mcnts. such as flutes, clarionets, ^c. No true sub- 

 stitute has yet been found either for Box-wood or Cocus- 

 wooil, the fine cloee grain of the former, and the metallic 

 ring of the latter being as yet undiscovered in any other 

 woods. Like many woods of great commireial importance, 

 the botanical source of (3ocus-wood w!^^; for some time 

 quite unknown. In Holtzapfel's Descrijitive Catalorjiie of 

 Woods it is referred to under Cocoa or Oocus-wood, and 

 is there said to be " imported from the West Indies in 

 logs from 2 to 8 inches in diameter, savn in lengths of 

 from 3 to 6 feet, tolerably free from kmis. with a thick 

 yellow sap ; the heart, which is rarely sound, is of a light 

 yellow-brown, streaked when first cut with hazel and 



