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in every direction. From the steep situation of the capital, 

 almost every house compound is built up on one side with a 

 retaining wall, and on the other is cut away so as to form a level 

 space. 



The prolonged moisture, combined with the heat of this time 

 of the year, naturally makes everything grow luxuriantly. The 

 hillsides again become green and pleasant to the eye ; our 

 gardens are gay with flowers, and in many places the open 

 downs display a considerable amount of floral beauty. I have 

 never seen elsewhere such a profusion of wild flowers as that 

 which met our view when travelling from the south-west to 

 Antananarivo in December 1887. Leaving Antsirabe and 

 proceeding northwards, the level country was gay with flowers, 

 which literally covered the downs, and in many places gave a 

 distinct and bright colour to the surface of the ground. Among 

 these the most prominent was a pale pink flower on stems from 

 a foot to eighteen inches high, called by the people kbtosdy 

 (Sopubia triphylla), and also the lovely deep blue flower called 

 nlfinakdnga, which latter covered the paths and also occurred 

 very abundantly among the grass. In many places, especi- 

 ally near villages, whether deserted or still inhabited, a 

 plant with small pale blue flowers (various species of Cyno- 

 glossum), almost exactly like our English "forget-me-not," 

 grew in dense masses, showing a blue-tinted surface even 

 at a considerable distance. The vonenina, with a pale pink 

 flower, was very frequent, as well as several species of 

 bright yellow flowers, one with a head of minute florets, looking 

 like a small yellow brush ; others were star-shaped, the whole 

 forming in many places a brilliant mass of gold. Three or four 

 species of white-flowered plants, one of them a clematis (Clematis 

 bojeri), were very frequent ; and a few late examples of terres- 

 trial orchids were seen. Five or six weeks previously these were 

 among the most abundant flowers met with, and their clusters 

 of waxy-white flowers were very conspicuous. Other species 

 of orchid, of rich crimson and also of purple, were even more 

 beautiful. 



We reckoned that there were from twenty to thirty different 

 species of wild flowers then in bloom on these downs of Vakinan- 

 karatra, gladdening our eyes by their varied beauty and 

 abundance on that glorious morning. The flowers, however, 



