200 THE OCEAN. 



swelling eminences and gentle slopes assume some- 

 what of the appearance of the chalk hills and downs 

 of our own sweet England. But there are features 

 which effectually distinguish this island from our 

 own, and fail not to remind us that we are beholding 

 the gorgeousness of the tropics. The summits of 

 the hills are clothed with magnificent forest-trees of 

 strange forms and foliage ; the graceful palms wave 

 their feathery crowns against the deep-blue sky : 

 leafless cacti, thick and cylindrical, project from the 

 rocks, or take the shape of enormous candelabra : the 

 great American aloe, with its thick and spiny leaves, 

 shoots wp its glorious head of yellow blossoms to the 

 height of twenty feet : the clusters of golden fruit 

 depend from the plantain and banana, whose gigantic 

 fronds are cut by the winds into ragged segments ; 

 while the whole array is bound and matted together 

 by strong rope-like climbing plants, which, crossing 

 each other in every direction, and twisting around the 

 forest-trees and around each other, like huge cables, 

 present an immense net of vegetation, impenetrable 

 except by the axe of the woodman. Tree-ferns, 

 possessing all the grace and elegance of those with 

 v/hich we are familiar, but growing to a giant size, 

 shoot up from the clefts of the rocks, or from the 

 branches of the loftier trees, their rich brown stalks 

 contrasting with the vivid green of their fan-shaped 

 fronds. The sides of the hills are clothed with lux- 

 uriant plantations of Indian corn, or the still more 

 rich and beautiful sugar-cane ; and here and there 

 a walk of cocoa-trees is rendered conspicuous by the 

 glowing scarlet blossoms of the coral trees, by whose 



