UNION OF TEMPERATE AND TROPICAL FORMS. 303 



scenery. Groves of Guava (Psidium pyriferum) and a 

 small species of Orange, contribute materially to the same 

 end. In the quiet spots, selected for the interment of 

 the dead, the Banyan 



spreads her arms 



Branching so broad and long, that in the ground 

 The bended twigs take root, and daughters grow 

 About the mother tree, a pillar'd shade 

 High overarch'd, and echoing walks between. 



Paradise Lost. 



The sugar-cane grows sparingly, and is accounted a 

 luxury rather than a necessary of life. Altogether, there 

 is a strange mingling of temperate and tropical forms, 

 both in the Animal and Vegetable Kingdoms, among 

 these islands. You will find the Violet and the Rose 

 the Polygala and the Marygold growing side by side with 

 the Plantain, the Pepper and Pandanus ; you will see the 

 Fire-fly, and the Painted-Lady Butterfly occupying the 

 same trees, and the Centipede, Theliphonus, Scorpion, 

 Opatrum, and Hister under the same stones. The Palms 

 gradually decrease in numerical importance and diversity 

 of species, as you recede from the equatorial line. The 

 Cocoa-nut does not grow much beyond the twentieth de- 

 gree of latitude ; but the Pandanus, or Screw-Pine, is 

 apparently the most hardy of them all, and is the last to 

 disappear. At the Island of Pa-tchung-san I found the 

 Musa pamdisaica, but very poor and small, and rarely 

 producing fruit; the Palmetto, or Pan-Palm, (Borassus 

 flabettiformis) however, seemed to thrive very well in the 

 same island, and is used by the natives for a variety of 

 purposes, particularly in the manufacture of hats. Among 

 these islands I found the long Pepper (Piper longum) 



