CHAP. IV. THE DOMAIN OF REDUIT 81 



seemed to me nearly ten degrees cooler than Port Louis. I 

 had much conversation with the governor on the state of 

 education in the island, and at a late hour retired to rest. 

 It was to me a novel spectacle to see large tiger skins hanging 

 over the banisters of the stairs leading to the sleeping rooms, 

 looking as if but recently taken from the bodies of their 

 owners, and showing the holes of the bullets by which they 

 had been killed. The governor had formerly resided in 

 India, and I supposed these were trophies of the wild sports 

 of the East. 



Early the next morning I walked over the extensive 

 domain of Eeduit, visiting portions which I had been unable 

 to reach on the previous evening. The house, which stands 

 upon a gradual slope extending from the elevated plain to 

 the sea, is spacious but low. The centre, both of the front 

 and the back of the house, is protected from the sun by broad 

 corridors, and the ends are shaded by verandahs and trellis- 

 work overgi'own with passion-flowers and other creeping 

 plants. On the side of the house towards the sea was a 

 flower garden, and at the northern end a lawn bordered with 

 shrubs and enlivened by flower beds cut out in the turf. At 

 Reduit, as well as Cerne, I fovmd several familiar plants, and 

 their unexpected appearance seemed like meeting with old 

 friends. Among the roses, a small flowering noisette was in 

 full bloom. Devoniensis appeared with long slender shoots 

 and thin-petalled pale flowers. Fuchsias, recently introduced 

 from the Cape, Oenotheras, achimenes, gloxinias, and helio- 

 tropes, mignonette, and violets, were growing side by side with 

 Allamanda Schottii. Russelia juncia, Poinsettia, Gardenia, 

 and other plants requiring artificial heat in England, all 

 flourished luxuriantly in the open air. A beautiful aleurites 

 grew near the end of the house, and beside it a fine large 

 Ahlutans striata with large, dark-orange flowers, having 

 deep, clear, claret-coloured pencilled markings. Wherever 



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