" SUMMER ISLES OF EDEN." 413 



ent countries. And yet the traveller who, after having explored the 

 primeval forests of Africa and Asia, should be transported to the wild 

 and wooded regions of the great Indian Archipelago and the Pacific 

 Ocean, could not fail to be struck with the novel spectacle presented 

 to his gaze. Undoubtedly he would meet, at first, with a great 

 number of plants not unknown to him ; but he would not fail to 

 discover many others which he had not hitherto observed, and especi- 

 ally would he contemplate with astonishment perhaps with admira- 

 tion the chaos of this rich, various, dense, but disordered vegetation. 

 It seems, in truth, as if within these " summer isles of Eden" Nature 

 had hastened to accumulate her choicest products, and feeling herself 

 restricted within narrow limits, had carefully laboured not to lose the 

 smallest particle of space not even of the aerial territory, if I may so 

 speak allotted to her. Not only are the trees set in the closest 

 possible array, but they struggle with wonderful effort to develop the 

 exuberance of their strength. Nearly all display an abundant and 

 persistent foliage ; their branches are, in general, thick and spongy, 

 and begin to shoot at the base of the trunk ; in such wise that the 

 lower boughs extend close to the ground, and by interlacing with 

 those of neighbouring trees, form impenetrable thickets. Many send 

 forth, from their trunk and their branches, frail flexible roots like 

 the lianas, which descend to the earth, plant themselves in the soil, 

 and contribute to render the forests absolutely impervious. Nor is 

 this all ; the plants grow there, literally, one upon another. Nowhere, 

 under the Tropics, does one see a similar profusion of epiphytous 

 plants ; not a single tree but is invaded by the close-clinging roots 

 and flexible ramifications of these parasites, mingled with brightly- 

 blossoming lianas, whose multifold stems are of immeasurable length. 

 Species worthy of note, either on account of their beauty, their 

 various uses, or formidable poisonous properties, and belonging to 

 widely-differing families, abound, moreover, in these perennial forests. 

 Ceylon, which has justly been named by the Orientals " a pearl 

 detached from Hindostan," so admirable is its situation, so marvellous 

 is its fertility, so exhaustless its mineral wealth, is the native country 



