238 Transactions. 



the most striking plants in existence. It has a stem 8 or 10 feet 

 high and about 20 leaves spreading out like a fan, each of which 

 is about 10 feet long. The bright white flowers grow on a sort of 

 cone at the bases of the leaves, and the honey is busily visited by 

 a beautiful little sunbird with a scarlet and blue breast. The 

 seeds are the great mainstay, moreover, of the rather dingy slate- 

 coloured Malagash Parrot, whicli frequents them in great numbers. 

 This tree is of the greatest use to the natives, whose houses are 

 built almost entirely with its leaves. The water, however, 

 obtained by piercing the leaf bases is lukewarm and of a very 

 vegetable taste. It is also here that the Rofia palm, whose spHt 

 leaves are so much used by gardeners, grows. It is also here that 

 the Bamboos thrive, with their enormous gracefully curved leaves, 

 like a gigantic bunch of ostrich feathers, of a delicate yellowish 

 green. The extraordinary Nepenthes, moreover, is not uncommon 

 on these slopes. The grass clothing these gentle rises is very 

 harsh and useless, and there is an abundance of the common 

 bracken everywhere. 



Soon, however, one enters the true forest, which covers three 

 or four ranges of parallel mountain chains. It is usually not very 

 beautiful. The path is only about two feet wide, and is walled in 

 on either side by a sort of gigantic hedge 70 or 80 feet high. 

 This is formed of dense undergrowth and huge trees, from the 

 lower branches of which hang the enormous foliage masses of the 

 climbing plants. The aim of Nature seems to have been to fill 

 every available space with leaves. There are no glades and none 

 of those agreeable vistas so common in English woods. Though 

 the appearance of these trees is not really very striking, they are 

 all of entirely different kinds. One here meets huge Compositse, 

 the Vernonias, with enormous umbels of purple heads ; such 

 Leguminosae as Neobaronia with fleshy, flattened, leafless branches. 

 Brexia, a tree 80 feet high, Avhose nearest relative in our 

 country is the Saxifrage ; AVeinmannia is also a Saxifrage. 

 Many of the largest trees belong to Euphorbiace^e, such as the 

 genus Euphorbia itself and Croton. There is also a huge forest 

 tree, Wormia, a near ally of Ranunculaceoe. Few of these trees 

 are at all beautiful ; perhaps the bright pink flowers of Ixora or 

 Colea are the handsomest, and one of these in full blossom is very 

 beautiful indeed. The creepers are chiefly objectionably spiny 

 Asparaguses or Smilax, but their number and variety is enormous. 

 The undergrowth of Plectranthus, Balsams, &c., is often very 



