14 THE VOYAGE. 
Panama Railway Company are really delightful 
residences, overshadowed by cocoanut trees, and 
surrounded by perfect bijous of gardens en- 
tirely reclaimed from the swamps: the papaw, 
the banana, blossoming creeping plants, fruit- 
bearing vines, and curious orchids, all growing 
together, a wild tangle of loveliness, yielding 
beauty, fruits, and shade. The cool verandah, and 
cane-chairs from China, together with the com- 
fortably-furnished interior, gave ample proof that 
the products of a tropical country may be used 
to good account, as additions to our northern ideas 
of a substantial home. 
One of the most singular flowers growing in 
this pretty garden was an orchid, called by the 
natives ‘ Flor del Espiritu Santo,’ or the ‘Flower 
of the Holy Ghost.’ The blossom, white as 
Parian-marble, somewhat resembles the tulip in 
form; its perfume is not unlike that of the mag- 
nolia, but more intense; neither its beauty nor 
fragrance begat for it the high reverence in 
which it is held, but the image of a dove placed 
in its centre. Gathering the freshly-opened 
flower, and pulling apart its alabaster petals, 
there sits the dove; its slender pinions droop 
listlessly by its side, the head inclining gently 
forward, as if bowed in humble submission, brings 
