79 



in cabinets in England : it is a trailing bush, with spikes of small, 

 pink pea-flowers, and rather dirty-looking pods. 



" Before breakfast, I walked to the ascent of the hills behind Port 

 Louis. The trees in this part are not lofty. The tamarind {Tama- 

 rindus indicus), is about as large as the ash : its branches are slender, 

 and its leaf small : its fruit was nearly over; most of the pods had 

 become dry, and were perforated by insects. Before ripening, they 

 are powerfully acid, but in this state they are used in curries, and are 

 eaten with salt, which is also used in this country to moderate the 

 acid of sour oranges, &c. The fragrant Mauritian jasmine [Jasminum 

 mauritianum), with eight-cleft flowers and trifoliate leaves, andn ume- 

 rous other shrubs, were growing thickly in various places, and great 

 numbers of a beautiful butterfly were feasting on the nectar of Tiari- 

 dium indicum, a plant resembling heliotrope, and called in this coun- 

 try herbe aux papillons, or butterfly's plant." — p. 7. 



3rd Mo. 19th. — "I walked to the Cemetery, which is at a short 

 distance from the town, and near the sea. It is approached by a 

 long avenue of the Filao (Casuarina lateriflora), a leafless tree from 

 Madagascar, attaining to a considerable height, and having drooping 

 branches, clothed with green, slender, pendant, jointed, rush-like 

 spray, through which the wind whistles with a mournful sound." — p. 

 12. 



" On the borders of a shady part of the road near Pamplemousses, 

 the beautiful orange and white varieties of Thunbergia alata were 

 growing, much in the manner that ground-ivy grows in England ; and 

 by the side of a brook, there was a species of Papyrus or paper reed ; 

 and a remarkable palm from Madagascar, from the fibres of which 

 beautiful cloth, resembling stuff, is manufactured." — p. 16. 



" In the rocky wood at the head of the aqueduct there are several 

 fine ferns ; among them is one which closely resembles Acrostichum 

 fraxinifolium of Moreton Bay. A beautiful climber of the Convolvu- 

 lus tribe, Quamoclit angulata, produces such a profusion of scarlet 

 flowers among the shrubs that border the river, as to have obtained a 

 name signifying " fire in the bush." — p. 23. 



" The traveller's tree {Urania spcciosa), forms a striking feature in 

 the prospect. Clumps of these trees, composed of several stems 

 rising from the same root, are scattered over the country in all direc- 

 tions. The trunks, or more properly root-stocks, which are about 

 three feet in circumference, sometimes attain to thirty feet in height ; 

 but whether of this elevation, or scarcely emerging above ground, 

 they support grand crests of leaves, of about four feet long, and one 



