110 LAL-BAGH AT BANGALORE. 



show of trees, shrubs, and flowering plants, ferns and 

 orchids, and a charming border-edging of lilac Plumbago 

 (Statice armeria) ; indeed, owing to its situation 

 within the tropics, combined with an elevation which 

 gives it a temperate climate, Mysore boasts of an 

 uncommonly rich and varied flora. At a flower show 

 held during my stay, there was a splendid collection 

 of variegated leaves of the genus Croton and Caladium, 

 nnd fine specimens of the bright red Poinsettia and 

 Amaranthus. As foi' creepers and climbers, I do not 

 think even Ceylon produces a greater variety: there 

 was the lliunhergia laurifolia, and the Bougainvillea 

 spectahilis, both purple ; — the Acanthus {hexacentris) 

 rosea, flower fox-brown, growing in spikes ; — the pink 

 Antigonon; — the blue Jack Beaumontia; — the Bignonia 

 venusta, a cluster of pale-amber pendants ; — the scarlet 

 Pyvoria ; — the yellow Bonetia ; — half-a-dozen kinds 

 of Passijiora; and I might add scores of others of 

 equally great beauty. The Sebestan plum (Cordia 

 ^sehestina), grows here to great perfection ; it is a 

 handsome pyramidal ti"ee, eight to twelve feet high, 

 producing bunches of opaque-amber coloured flowers ; — 

 the Hibiscus syriacus, white corolla with purple centre ; 

 also the Alamanda grandiflora, sometimes seen in 

 green-houses in England, a shrub with large yellow, 

 funnel-shaped flowers ; — the Ixora hutea; — the elegant 



