IN THE EAST INDIES. 145 
which all English women I have met say wears beau- 
tifully, washes splendidiy and never cracks; I paid 
forty-nine cents a yard for it, twenty-seven inches 
wide. My old princess dress, which I got at Miss 
Knight’s years ago, is on its last legs; it has to be 
mended every time I wear it and then it gets so 
dirty. You see that and the lace dress Mrs. Barbour 
gave me are the only two high-necked dresses I have. 
My velvet is too hot and my embroidered dresses are 
either too nice or too dirty. There are no cleansers 
this side of San Francisco. Mrs. Palmer would not 
recommend any in Caleutta and I have not been able 
to find any since. 
The Botanical Gardens are simply superb. You 
would so enjoy seeing them. Yesterday we walked 
through the spice section, devoted to teas and coffees 
and we saw them growing most luxuriantly. The 
flower I enclose is coffee. It is so pretty growing, 
with shining green leaves, a mass of white blossoms, 
which smell like gardenias and orange blossoms mixed, 
and which grow right out of the trunk or a branch of 
the plant; right next to them will! be coffee beans. The 
orchid section is simply glorious. One plant that I 
specially noticed was growing in the ground; its stem 
was larger than I could clasp and it was at least ten 
feet high; it was simply a mass of blossoms on the 
spray two to three feet long, and the blossoms were 
such a wonderful mixture of colors : white, chocolate 
and green. Every plant and flower and tree in the 
garden is simply beautiful. Tom works hard at the 
museum every day where he has a room, getting the 
New Guinea specimens ready to ship and pickling 
what we get here. Major Ouwens, quite a swell here, 
