110 ISLES OF SUMMER. 



hides its head among chisters of dark green leaves, is one of my 

 favorite flowers. * * * The yellow jessamine, and a variety 

 of flowering myrtles, fill the air Avith their perpetnal fragrance. 

 * * * I have seen the sweet briar and the multiflora rose in 

 blossom, growing very luxuriantly." 



*' The bayonet plant is properly named for its leaves are thick 

 and sharp like those of the aloes, and point upwards like those 

 of the pine apple ; it grows about thirty feet high, and forms an 

 imj^enetrable hedge. From the center of the leaves, directly on 

 the top, bursts a stem about two feet long which is thickly cov- 

 ered with dazzling white flowers, the size and shape of a crown 

 imperial ; the inside of the calyx is of a pale yellow, and hun- 

 dreds of these little bells hanging downwards, cover the stem, 

 and the whole is two or three feet in circumference. It has the 

 most powerful and oppressive fragrance. The flower of the 

 cocoanut is very beautiful. There is no end to the variety of 

 pretty flowering vines and shrubs which sjjread forth their rain- 

 bow colored flowers to charm the eye, and mingle their spicy 

 odors with the soft winds to delight the senses. The coffee and 

 cotton trees are not very numerous, but the air is eternally 

 filled with the fragrance of the orange, lemon and mahogany 

 blossoms. There is a wonderful variety of medicinal plants here, 

 and almost every leaf affords a panacea for some disease." 



Oleanders are very common and grow to a large size. They 

 adorn many homesteads, but lose something of their value by 

 reason of their great abundance. They continued in bloom dur- 

 ing all the time we remained in Nassau; the blossoms of some 

 were white, others pink, and others a dark red color. A prickly 

 pear species of cactus of a vigorous, large, rank growth, is also 

 found upon the island, and is in many localities very abundant. 

 A large, exquisitely beautiful, plume-like and delicate blossom, 

 called the shell plant, was frequently offered for sale in the court 



