THE RAINS 131 



already made mention. The babool is a species of 

 acacia. It is a tree of no great size, hardly, if at all, 

 exceeding that of our apple tree, nor can it boast of 

 much beauty ; its foliage is scanty, and much inter- 

 spersed with thorns ; and it has a dry, parched aspect, 

 such as would befit it for the neighbourhood of a 

 desert. 



The attraction of the tree consists in its flowers ; 

 these it bears in profusion. The flowers are extremely 

 pretty, though in shape peculiar. Each flower consists 

 of a multitude of slender spikes, all radiating from 

 a common centre ; they form a little ball about the 

 size of a small cherry. The especial charm of the 

 flower is its colour and its scent ; its colour is the 

 richest golden yellow, and its perfume is hardly sur- 

 passed by even that of the rose. These flowers now 

 cover the babool-trees in such thousands that, as I 

 stroll along the path, the whole air is laden with their 

 scent. 



In singular contrast to the delicious odour of the 

 flower is that of the sap of the tree from which the 

 flower is produced : this is to the last degree offensive. 

 A branch of the tree lopped off or broken off by the 

 wind and left to lie on the ground will in a day or 

 two exhale an odour hardly to be distinguished from 

 that of the most putrid carrion. 



There is another and much larger tree in the com- 

 pound which also, like the babool, exhales a scent, but 

 one less agreeable. This tree is the neem. It is what I 

 may term a forest tree, about the size of our English 

 elm. The scent does not proceed from the flower, but 



