THE BEAUTY OF THE NIGHT 367 



exactly the appearance produced by a passing 

 shower. In the lowlands the effect of moonlight 

 and shadow on the pools is weird in the true Edgar 

 Allan Poe sense of that word. In places the light 

 sifts through the trees and glimmers on the water; 

 elsewhere there is still a faint, soft gleam, but 

 under the heavy vegetation the black shadows are 

 full of mystery. 



The effect of the moonlight on the palms is 

 bewitching as it shimmers on the glittering leaflets, 

 and it is equally fine on the bamboos, enhancing 

 their feathery lightness and grace more deftly 

 than does the over-revealing sunlight. I well 

 remember a night spent at the home of Professor 

 Nehrling, of Gotha, Florida, some years ago. 

 There was a full moon and a short distance from 

 my bedroom window grew an immense clump of 

 the majestic bamboo, Dendrocalamus latifolius. 

 Its stems arose almost straight for fully fifty feet 

 and then with indescribable grace arched slightly 

 outward. I sat for hours at my window and 

 drank in the intoxicating beauty of this stately 

 grass, and it seemed to me in that magic light to 

 be the most perfect specimen of the vegetable king- 

 dom I had ever seen. 



