158 PHCENIX PARK. 



A small garden partially surrounds the house, 

 filled with ornamental trees and shrubs, some native 

 and some exotic. The beautiful Nerium, called the 

 South-sea rose, is prominent among the latter, as 

 also the gorgeous Hibiscus rosa-sinensis, and the 

 Spanish Jasmine, as fragant as it is elegant; and 

 the scarlet Belladonna ; lily, and many others add 

 to the gaiety of the parterre. In the garden and 

 around it are several curious trees. The noble 

 Malay apple {Eugenia malaccensis) or, as it is here 

 called, the Otaheite Cashew, there erects its conical 

 head, covered either with its beautiful flowers, like 

 clusters of crimson tassels, or with its close, luxuriant 

 richly-green foliage. The Sago Palm, likewise trans- 

 ported from farthest India, has found here a climate 

 and a soil congenial to its growth, and presents a 

 singular object in its stiff bristling leaves, radiating 

 in all directions, and its heart covered with a brown 

 woolly or mealy substance. Immediately before the 

 door is a large arborescent Eiipliorhia, probably 

 E. grandidens, a native of South Africa, with rather 

 inconspicuous flowers, but sure to attract the attention 

 of a stranger by its long angular leafless branches, 

 set with spines, like long Cacti growing from the 

 trunk of an ordinary tree. A row of Shaddock trees, 

 hung in the season with their golden fruits, as large 

 as a child's head, combines beauty, fragrance, and 

 utility ; while Cashew trees. Mangoes, Custard- 

 Apples, Sops and Guavas, all valuable fruits, but 

 too common to need description, form groves around 

 the mansion. 



Having thus introduced my friend's dwelling to 



