TREES OF THE TROPICAL FOREST. 137 



sailor men would go f urtlier and call him a " Jonah," 

 having met with so many rebuffs at the hands of old 

 Neptune. 



I have not enumerated all the arboreal residents 

 of the island, but sufficient to show that I was well 

 enough provided with trees for use as timber and for 

 making the few articles of furniture that my necessi- 

 ties seemed to require. I did not immediately ex- 

 ploit the resources of my domain, but the informa- 

 tion I have laid before my readers was only gained 

 after months of investigation. Several months passed 

 away before I felt the necessity of resorting to the 

 supplies at hand in the forest for the furnishing of my 

 house and for subsistence. 



In enumerating the members of my sylvan aris- 

 tocracy I should not omit the BamhuscB^ for they were 

 among my nearest and dearest neighbors. A great 

 clump of bamboos grew almost at the door of my 

 seaside hut, and a beautiful group overshadowed the 

 stream where I washed, of a morning, and dipped out 

 water for culinary use. They grew close to the bank, 

 a perfect cluster of spears of Anak, straight and tall, 

 but spreading out sheaf -like at the crown, and with 

 fine, feathery leaves. 



Beneath the sheaf were scattered the dead and 

 yellow leaves, constantly dropping; and as nothing 

 else grew where these had fallen, the sloping bank 

 was an inviting place for me to rest and listen to the 

 murmurings of my darling brook. Some of the stems 

 were five inches in diameter and the largest of them 

 I thinned out, cutting them into lengths of six feet 

 11 



