OUR ISLAND 21 



rich and vigorous. Other mixtures of forest and jungle 

 may smell as strong, but none has the rare blend which I 

 recognise and gloat over whensoever, after infrequent 

 absences for a day or two, I return to accept of it in grateful 

 sniffs. In such a fervid and encouraging clime distillation 

 is continuous and prodigious. Heat and moisture and 

 a plethora of raw material, leaves, flowers, soft, sappy 

 and fragrant woods, growing grass and moist earth, 

 these are the essential elements for the manufacture of 

 ethereal and soul-soothing odours suggestive of tangible 

 flavours. 



I know of but one particular plant that is absolutely 

 repellent. Its large flowers are of vivid gold, pure and 

 refined ; the unmixed odour is obscene. A creeper of the 

 jungle bears small yellow flowers (slightly resembling those 

 of the mango, save that they are produced in frail loose 

 cymes instead of on vigorous panicles), the excessive 

 sweetness of which approaches nauseousness. But its 

 essence mingles with the rest, and the compound is 

 singularly rich and acceptable. 



On sandy stretches and along the deltas of the creeks are 

 fragrant, gigantic "spider lilies " (Crinum). I do not pretend 

 to catalogue botanically all the plants that contribute to the 

 specific odour of the island. I cannot address them in- 

 dividually in scientific phraseology, though with all I am on 

 terms of easy familiarity, the outcome of seasoned admiration. 

 They please by the form and colour of their blossoms, and 

 ring ever-recurring and timeful changes, so that month by 

 month we enjoy the progress of the perfumes, the blending 

 of some, the individual excellence of others. In endeavour- 

 ing to convey to the unelect an impression of their variety 

 and acceptableness, am I not but discharging a debt of 

 gratitude ? 



As far as I am aware, but four or five epiphytal orchids 

 add to the scents of the island ; and as they have not 

 Christian names, their pagan titles must suffice Cymbidium 

 suave, Eria Fitzalani, Bulbophyllum Bailey i, Dendrobium 

 teretifolium and D. undulatum. The latter is not commonly 



