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THE KINGDOM OF UGANDA 



red knob at the end of the stalk below. The leaves of the bananas are the 

 most lovely green that exists in nature. When young, or when semi- 

 transparent, with the sunlight behind them, they offer a brilliant grass- 

 green to the eye. The upper surface of the leaf in its prime, however, 

 is blue-green, and the blue sheen is produced by a delicate bloom, which 

 also veils the bright colours and contrasts of the stem with a scumbled 

 softening of tints. The main stem of the full-grown tree is often glossy 

 black. Even the old and tattered fronds are beautiful by the vivid yellow 

 or bronze-black tints they assume. A banana plantation, therefore, is a 

 feast of colour for the eyes. It is also a source of joy and comfort to 



"■"**"""^T~g 



one's hungry porters from the assurance of satisfying food which it 

 supplies. 



I wonder whether any of my readers remember fantastic pictures by 

 an Early Victorian painter (? Martin) who flourished in the 'forties of the 

 last century, and illustrated religious subjects, derived in great measure 

 from the inspiration of Milton's Paradise Lost and Regained. His 

 works were much perpetuated by engraved reproductions. One of these 

 was called "The Plains of Heaven." It exhibited a Turneresque landscape 

 of untrue perspective, wath those vague, unclassified trees so untruthful in 

 drawing to which Turner was addicted. Streams of water flowed without 

 any regard to the law of gravity, and a Turneresque shimmer in the 



