82 VISITS TO MADAGASCAE. chap, iv. 



I meet with home flowers, I always expect to find strong 

 home feelings, and rejoice in this means of perpetually 

 reviving them. 



In an artificial stone basin were a number of arums, re- 

 sembling Arum costatum. The fleshy root stood a foot or 

 more out of the water, and the large, strong-ribbed, shining 

 green leaves, seemed to be eight or ten feet high. I fre- 

 quently saw the same species growing wild in the swampy 

 parts of Madagascar. There were also, near the same place, 

 an india rubber tree, and some splendid Artocarpus inte- 

 grifolia or jack trees, with their immense oval fruit of a 

 greenish-yellow, hanging, not amidst the spreading branches, 

 but on a small short stem growing from the trunk or from the 

 large branches of the tree. In the kitchen garden, which was 

 extensive, the common China rose, or rose Edward, formed 

 complete hedges along some of the walks. Peas, French 

 beans, and other European vegetables, were growing well 

 here, though not so luxuriantly as at Cerne ; but of straw- 

 berries there were large beds apparently going out of bearing. 

 Beyond this garden, at some distance in the same direction, 

 were ponds supplied with water fowl, and farther on the maize 

 and banana plantations, with the huts of the Creoles and other 

 labourers. 



Leaving these, I walked over the grounds, which were ex- 

 tensive and varied, affording occasionally, where the trees and 

 brushwood had been cleared away, on one hand, a view of the 

 ocean with the small white sails of the coasting vessels glitter- 

 ing in the morning sun, on the other, of the mountains of 

 Moka, and those extending from the Pouce to within about a 

 mile from the grounds. 



A deep, rocky, and steep ravine bounded the domain on 

 the north, and added greatly to the variety and beauty of the 

 scenery. At the bottom of this ravine a rapid stream sparkled 

 along its course from the mountains of Moka to the sea. 

 Notwithstanding the stony nature of the sides of the ravine. 



