TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 131 



frondosa, &c, all flower when leafless; the flowers of all are beautiful in the 

 hand ; in the landscape they have no effect whatever. 



The same cause that prevented me providing such a collection as I could have 

 desired of illustrations of the geology of rocks around Suez, has precluded me 

 providing anything like the supplies requisite to establish my position in the present 

 notice; and I could have especially desired to have added to those prepared for 

 another purpose, but which must do duty in this also ; a series of the magnificent 

 flowers which clothe our forests in summer when they are in their fullest glory of 

 green. 



The representations of individual flowers, as found in our scientific works, are 

 sufficient to indicate their outline, general aspect, and botanical character ; they fail 

 altogether to convey any idea of their magnitude, and the magnificence of their 

 appearance as seen in the forest. A bunch of flowers of th^ Poinciana reyiu 

 seldom occupies less than a cubic foot ; a single lotus flower has a diameter of seven 

 inches ; the snow-white transparent shaped flower of the Datura alba is seven 

 inches from the calyx to the top of the petal, and four inches across. A single 

 bunch of the flowers of the Lagerstrmmia regina, or of the Acacia fistula, will 

 occupy a square foot of paper; and a sheet of elephant of six square feet in surface 

 is about the smallest sized piece of paper on which a bunch of forest flowers should 

 be drawn, if it be intended to give anything like an idea of them as they appear 

 on the tree. 



The examples now sent are : — 



1. The Bulea frondosa ; 2. Bombax malabaricum ; 3. the Eriodmdron anfrac- 

 tuosum ; 4. the Cochlospermum Gossypium — two of these being given both in flower 

 and in fruit. They require no description ; they indicate what is meant to be illus- 

 trated by them. 



The two other drawings — the Bignonia grandiflora and Bougainvillcea — are the only 

 illustrations of the converse position I have been able to prepare. 



These require no description ; the least effective, or rather the most distressing of 

 them to the eye in the forest, are the Bulea frondosa and Bombax malabaricum. 



The drawing of the latter indeed in its seed-pods and wort, with only a couple of 

 flowers, shows better pictorially, with its brown, black, green pods, than its 

 bunches of crimson flowers. 



The only illustrations of the converse I have been able to draw — we have them in 

 the forest in hundreds of thousands — are the Bougainvillaa and the Bignonia gran- 

 diflora— hoth creeping plants, neither of them indigenous, plentiful in all our 

 gardens, and in flower and leaf from December till May, a season at which our indi- 

 genous plants (which I meant to have drawn in addition) are either in flower only 

 or in leaf only. 



The two chance to cover the roof of my cottage for about thirty feet across and 

 fifty along, and festoon and intertwine themselves amongst the trellis-work and in 

 trees, producing chromatic effects of infinite beauty. 



The Bignonia has a trumpet-shaped flower somewhat larger than that of the 

 common honeysuckle, hanging in bunches nearly the size of the hand, and of thirty 

 or forty flowers each ; the bunches themselves being rarely more than from six to 

 ten inches apart. The Bougainvillaa has small yellow insignificant-looking flowers, 

 but they are enclosed in bracts of leaves, three in number, which from January titl 

 June are of the most beautiful amethystine purple, so gorgeous, indeed, as to conceal 

 in a considerable measure the natural green leaves of the plant. The branches on 

 which they grow are perfectly straight thorny twigs, from three to seven feet in 

 length, with tendrils at intervals to attach them to any support in their neighbour- 

 hood. The two plants under review, beautiful when apart, are singularly so when 

 combined. The contrast of the colours of the flowers, which might seem abrupt and 

 harsh, is softened by the green of the leaves ; this in the two being of a hue alto- 

 gether different, I have never seen an artist who was not fascinated with the exhibi- 

 tion. My drawings are so imperfect in colour and so feeble, that I do not feel cer- 

 tain that in this case they will afford so much as an illustration of my meaning. 



Illustrations of both my positions may be derived from dress. The most elegantly 

 attired female, if arrayed in parti-coloured garments, looks spotty and ineffective as 

 a portion of the landscape in a grove or avenue of trees ; even in Hyde Park or 



9* 



