FAN PALMS AND POND FLOWERS. 



By Edgab Beckett. 



Possibly it is because one knows the trees, or at least a large 

 proportion of them, that the delightful little gardens in New Amsterdam 

 are a never-failing source of pleasure. 



We have often been surprised at the Rmall amount of interest and 

 pleasure the inhabitants of Xew Amsterdam appear to take in these 

 gardens, in spite of the fact that the}' are easy of access and the town 

 itself has, apart from them, very little that can claim to be attractive. 



For the most part, unless some concert is conducted there, or on the 

 rare occasions a baud of music is present, the gardens are practically 

 deserted except for a few nursery-maids and their pretty little charges. 

 Sunday afternoon is an exception, then the lads and lasses of the town 

 congregate there bravely dressed in their Sunday best ; but we fear the 

 beauty of the place does not appeal to these, as for the most part the}' 

 are roystering youths and giddy girls, who for one afternoon in the week 

 are free to use this dainty little spot to disport themselves in their fancy 

 frills and ribbons 



This, of course, can be readily understood, but how the more 

 intelligent fail to find in them the one spot where one exempt from 

 public haunt, 



" Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, 

 Sermons in stones and good in everything," 

 is not so easily accounted for. 



The gardens themselves, we believe, are only about a quarter of a 

 century old, a fact which strikes one who is not accustomed to the rapid 

 rampant growth of the tropics as amazing. Infancy is the least interest- 

 ing stage in gardens, if not in children, but the passage from baby-hood to 

 sturdy young manhood, in a tropical garden is so fast that despite of its 

 twenty-five years, these gardens have become already, and have been for 

 many years past, very much too small. Interesting as they are, they would 

 prove very much more so. had the original plan allowed for the occupa- 

 tion of a much larger area — even to thrice the size. As it is, man's unro- 

 mautic hands have to be continually occupied in severe pruning, and sacri- 

 fices must be made to keep riotous, tropical Nature, within the bounds of 

 the iron rails that enclose as sweet a spot as is to be found in the whole 

 Berbice county. Already, as if impatient of her iron boundaries, Nature 

 bursts over and through them, and if she had her way they would serve as 

 but small impediments to her vigorous progress. 



N.l>. for the beautiful pictures illustrating this paper I am indebted to the Kev. 

 .1. Whyte MacGill, M.A., who kindly took the photographs for me and lent me a 

 negative of the lake taken by him twelve years ago. 



