2 BURMA, ITS rEOPLE AND PRODUCTIOXS. 



Ecce ! jutente Deo, flores (t gramina terrte 

 Induitur fat-ics, riik'nt vernantia prata, 

 Arvaque partiiriunt nullos expcrta labores. 

 Exultat tellu?, variaqiie ornata corona 

 Eidct, et ambrosios circum ditfundit odores. 

 Scandunt umbroste suprcma cacumina sylv jc, 

 Montisque asct-nsum superant funesta cupressus, 

 Et qucrcus tectis, ct pinus navibus aptoe. 

 Inti'ioa zephyri, et spii'antes moUitcr aurae 

 Ludunt ; dum rivi serpunt ad margmis eras, 

 Pinguia qui circum glebis alimcnta ministrant. 

 Tunc hilaros primum rubuerunt vitibus uva; ; 

 Tempera tunc diversa anni confusa videres : 

 Quicquid frugiferis profert auctumnus in horis, 

 Quicquid promittunt renovati tempora veris 

 Fructnsque, ot flores, fructus spes pulchra futim, 

 Oruabant gemino curvatos pondere ramos." ' 



Dr. Mason prefaces lus account of the Botany of Burma by the following 

 remarks : — 



"Half a century ago, Dr. Buchanan, who accompanied Symes in his embassy 

 to Ava, made a large collection of plants from the banks of the Irrawaddy. A dozen 

 years afterwards Felix Carey, an English missionary, collected many curious and 

 new plants indigenous to Burma, and sent them up to Roxburgh, at the Botanical 

 Garden near Calcutta, who described them in his 'Flora Indica.' 



" After the first Burmese war Dr. Wallich went witli Craufurd in his embassy to 

 Ava, and his catalogue of plants, collected on this visit, contains 1650 species. 

 Eight or ten years subsecpent to Dr. Wallich's visit, Dr. Griffith came to the 



' Till now the waters hid the buried Earth, 

 And all was Sea, when He, th' Omnipotent 

 Creator, gave command they should jield place. 

 And in their midst the plains of Earth outspread. 

 At once like serried ranks of ordered host 

 The seas together ch'aw, whilst from their depth 

 Profound, the reeking Earth its hulk uprears. 

 And spreading wide, with Tallies fair between, 

 The towering hills theii' rugged forms disclose. 

 The Ocean now with angry murmur chafes. 

 And gathering wrath, its billows onward rolls. 

 In mountains piled. In vain, forsooth ! since He, 

 Th' All -Provident, its certain barriers raised, 

 And fixed the limits of its utmost sliore. 

 Kow see ! through spreading plains the rivers wind, 

 And streamlets murmur o'er their pebbly beds, 

 And many a grot its cooling font (Ustills, 

 So no fell drought miglit parch tliat smiling scene, 

 Kor Earth display a waste of barren sand. 

 Again behold, at God's creative word 

 Tlie meacb with flowers, with trees the mountains clothed ; 

 'Whilst joyous Nature seems around to smile, 

 And many a flower exhales ambrosial store. 

 The mournful cypress on the mountain side 

 Its foliage dark displays, nor far removed 

 The sturdy Oaks their foodfiU shade extend, 

 And Pines, to serve the future Shipwright's skill. 

 Meanwhile around the circling Zephyrs play, 

 Where grapes in swelling clusters load the vines. 

 Ko vaiying seasons then demarked the year. 

 But spring with autimin strove their gifts to blend. 

 'WHiate'er a renovated spring can show, 

 Whate'er rich autumn's wont it is to jHeld, 

 Of flower or fruit, fair earnest yet of more, 

 In union stranj-'e combine to load the trees. 



