BEWILDERMENT 99 



Cati, I tell him. Small wonder the pods are 

 twisted. 



With this we come to more live-oaks, on which 

 are more air-plants and orchids, and just be- 

 yond is a confusion of thick-leaved trees and 

 shrubs. 



"What is this? "he asks; "and this? and 

 this ? " 



I have no idea, I am obliged to answer. But 

 the tall tree a little farther on is Ficus aurea, I 

 hasten to remark, with a show of extreme erudi- 

 tion. 



" A fig-tree ? " he answers, in a tone of sur- 

 prise ; for, being a botanist, he knows, of course, 

 that^cws is fig. 



Yes, I assure him, it is a kind of fig (rubber 

 tree, it is otherwise called), though the leaf is 

 small and, as botanists say, "entire," not in 

 the least resembling the modest fig-leaf of con- 

 vention. I know the tree's name, as I know that 

 of the shrub before mentioned, because I was 

 told it yesterday. One's knowledge (of names) 

 increases rapidly under favorable circumstances, 

 in a country like this. 



Yonder very noticeable shrub, bearing large 

 globular bunches of small bright-purplish berries 

 (no eye could miss them), is the French mul- 

 berry, so called (Callicarpa Americana) ; and 



