8 PAEA. Chap. I. 



mostly in a dilapidated condition, and signs of indolence 

 and neglect were everywhere visible. The wooden 

 palings which surrovinded the weed-grown gardens 

 were strewn about, broken ; and hogs, goats and 

 ill-fed poultry, wandered in and out through the gaps. 

 But amidst all, and compensating every defect, rose 

 the overpowering beauty of the vegetation. The 

 massive dark crowns of shady mangos were seen 

 everywhere amongst the dwellings, amidst fragi-ant 

 blossoming orange, lemon, and many other tropical 

 fruit trees ; some in flower, others in fruit, at varying 

 stages of ripeness. Here and there, shooting above the 

 more dome-like and sombre trees, were the smooth 

 columnar stems of palms, bearing aloft their magnificent 

 crowns of finely-cut fronds. Amongst the latter the 

 slim assai-palm was especially noticeable ; growing in 

 groups of four or five ; its smooth, gently-curving stem, 

 twenty to thirty feet high, terminating in a head of 

 feathery foliage, inexpressibly light and elegant in out- 

 line. On the boughs of the taller and more ordinary- 

 looking trees sat tufts of curiously-leaved parasites. 

 Slender woody lianas hung in festoons from the 

 branches, or were suspended in the form of cords 

 and ribbons ; whilst luxuriant creeping plants overran 

 alike tree-trunks, roofs and walls, or toppled over 

 palings in copious profusion of foliage. The superb 

 banana (Musa paradisiaca), of which I had always read 

 as forming one of the charms of tropical vegetation, 

 here grew with great luxuriance : its glossy velvety- 

 green leaves, twelve feet in length, curving over the 

 roofs of verandahs in the rear of every house. The 



