58 VISITS TO MADAGASCAR. chap. iii. 



Colvillea, as well as some fine and fragrant species of Dombeya, 

 and other kinds, were introduced from Madagascar by M. Bojer, 

 who also brought the kiglia from the coast of Africa in 1824. 

 Besides these and other large-growing trees, there are 

 numbers of gay shrubs and flowers, either indigenous, or im- 

 ported from India, Java, and the adjacent isles, from South 

 America, Africa, and Madagascar, as well as from Australia 

 and Europe. The double and single blossomed oleander, 

 Nereum sjplendens, the bright pink-leaved dracsena, are 

 grown in almost every garden ; and near one of the public roads 

 I sometimes stopped to look at a sjjlendid Braughmansia, grow- 

 ing, not as we see it in England, in spacious and tasteful con- 

 servatories, but by the side of a ditch that drained part of the 

 town, with numbers of its large white trumpet-shaped flowers 

 hanging in clusters about the windows of a printing office, and 

 perhaps cheering, by the beauty of their form and colour, the 

 labours of the workmen within. The rich, delicate, and fra- 

 grant Stepha7iotus Jloribu7ida,wit'h. which the daughters of our 

 highest aristocracy have garlanded their brows on the bridal 

 morning, here climbs up the lattice-work of the verandahs, and 

 contends for space with the scarlet passion-flower or the pink, 

 waxy, and porcelain or gem-like flowers of the Hoy a carnosa or 

 the yellow-flowering Allamanda cathartica. The beautiful 

 Dalbergia scandens frequently covered the walls ; and the 

 Crypta stygia, a purple-flowered creeper from Madagascar, 

 occasionally overspread the largest trees. The Lantana 

 aurantiaca in some places forms hedges; and elegantly-grow- 

 ing cactuses, presenting at times long masses of bright yellow 

 flowers, are cut off the tops and sides of the walls with a 

 bill-hook or sickle. To all these, roses from England have 

 been recently added, and many of the sorts, especially the 

 Bourbon and tea-scented Chinas, thrive remarkably well, 

 though the colour of the flowers is paler, and the fragrance 

 fainter than when grown in England. 



