rG BOTANY-. 



fire-flies. In moving up the streams near the sea-board 

 on a dark night, these trees are often seen illumined with 

 myriads of waving brightening wings : 



"Retreating, chasing, sinking, soaring, 

 The darkness of the copse exploring," 



And making them look in the deep gloom, like superb 

 candelabra hung with living lamps. 

 JSgiceras fragrajis ? 



HANDSOME URANIA. 



The yard of a Burmese merchant in Tavoy, is often visited 

 by Europeans to look at what is deemed the most curious 

 tree in the Provinces. It is frequently amusing to listen to 

 the observations of the spectators that may not unfrequently 

 be seen gathered around it on a fine evening. " It is a kind 

 of a palm, " says one, " do you not see that its trunk is 

 precisely that of a palm ?" This settles the question so long 

 as the eyes are kept on the trunk ; but another looks up 

 and cries out, " No such thing ! Look at its leaves. 

 They cannot be distinguished from the leaves of a plantain 

 tree." It belongs to the natural family of the plantain, 

 but it has the trunk of a palm, and the leaves are not ar- 

 ranged around the stem like those of the plantain, but in 

 two opposite rows, so that the whole head has the form of a 

 gigantic fan. It is the only tree of the species that 1 have 

 seen on the Coast, and it was brought up by its owner from 

 Penang. It is well worthy of cultivation for a curiosity. 



Ravenala madagascariensis. 



Urania spcciosa. 



CASUARINA. 



The casuarinas, called beef-woods, form imposing bow- 

 ers, and are the very pictures of drooping beauty. There 

 is but one species indigenous to this Coast, which is the 

 one that has been diffused over Bengal, but the species in- 

 troduced into England is the one common to the Indian 

 Archipelago, and the South Sea Islands, called in the 

 latter place ironwood. The wood is very hard and dura- 

 ble, and the Tahitians in their war-days chose it for the 



