THE KAILROAD JOUEXEY TO COLON. 105 



draped with the waving tresses of the Spanish moss, their 

 stems covered with parasitic ferns and myriad orchidese, 

 whose blossoms loaded the air with a thousand sweet 

 perfumes, grew Flora's loveliest forms. Majestic mangoes, 

 mimosas, and huge wild fig-trees threw their welcome 

 shadows on the ground. Creepers of every hue and form 

 dappled the verdure with flecks and flashes of brilliant 

 colour. The elegant green tracery of the tree-ferns' 

 feathery plumes showed sharply against the clear blue sky. 

 Symmetrical columns of dates, cabbage-trees, and cocoas, 

 garlanded with convolvuli, stood in long vistas of fairy 

 architecture ; and towering palms of many kinds added 

 their stately beauty to the scene. Pretty villas white, 

 cool-looking buildings with wide green verandahs round 

 them, embowered amongst the choicest ornamental plants 

 of the tropics, with little plots of bananas, with orchards 

 of oranges and limes, pomegranates and spices, fields of 

 sugar-cane and groves of coffee-trees : the residences of 

 planters, railway officials, and the country quarters of rich 

 Panama merchants were to be seen from the road ; and 

 many a group of huts built of bamboo reeds, and thatched 

 with palm leaves, villages of the natives. As the train 

 passes these, women and children hasten from them to the 

 side of the road, the " cars " are stopped, and delicious 

 fruits, cocoa-nut-milk, palm fans, curiously-carved cocoa-nut 

 bowls, and various other articles of native manufacture are 

 offered to the passengers for sale. The costumes of these 

 villagers afford no material for description. As we followed 

 the course of the Chagres river we surprised several 

 bathing parties with nothing on them. They were about 



