SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



259 



this little enclosure, and must leave it with the 

 regretful feeling that the growth of the great city 

 may have swept it away entirely, before justice can 

 be done to its charms. The brilliant scarlet bracts 

 of Poinsettia, the pink-fringed petals and winged 

 carpels of Hiptage, the great golden funnels of 

 Allamanda, the pale purple cups of Thunbergia — all 

 these and more are here. Of begonias a volume 

 might be written. There are begonias with hairy 

 leaves and smooth leaves, leaves broad and narrow, 

 flowers large and small, pink, white, yellow, and all 

 minglings of these. But the globe-tourist can see 

 them all in the Botanic Gardens, or even the Raffles 

 Garden, at Singapore, and the untravelled can feast 

 his eyes in the Conservatory at Kew, on as fair an 

 array of begonias as the tropics themselves can 

 afford. Orchids are rare in Siamese gardens, 

 despite the wealth of them in the forests. The 

 orchid cult has not penetrated to Siam. Instead 

 thereof, is the craze for " crotons " (Codiaum), and 

 for varieties of Melia and other plants with beautiful 

 foliage. Indeed, it would seem to be foliage rather 

 than blossom that appeals to the Siamese taste, 

 if the verandahs and gardens of private houses of 

 Bangkok Siamese are a fair index. 



A garden in Siam all too soon reverts to jungle, 

 and this once royal demesne has in great part 

 passed into the unrestricted control of nature. 

 Paths once trodden smooth by many feet are now 

 almost entirely obliterated by trailing gourds, 

 whose beautiful but ephemeral white flowers 

 mingle with those of a purple Ipomcea and of 

 papilionaceous creepers innumerable. Festoons 

 of these delights of exuberance hang from tree to 

 tree and clothe each bamboo hut with a never- 

 fading garment of green and purple and gold. 

 Here and there one finds the relics of a former 

 cultivation — stunted olives and guavas, mean little 

 pineapples, globe amaranths, red and white ; the 

 Indian prickly-pear, and a columnar cactus. This 

 last stands sentinel-wise at the entrance to a native 

 cabin, whose little unkempt garden-patch boasts a 

 half-wild Ixora, a glowing Hibiscus and a tangled 

 mass of rosy Bougainvillea. Of common wayside 

 flowers there are many which are scarcely less 

 pleasing than the more gorgeous relics of the 

 gardener's craft. Ricinus communis, the castor-oil 

 plant, is everywhere, and the eye never fails to rest 

 with pleasure on its beautifully-formed young 

 leaves of glistening ruby and its burr-like 

 fruits crowned with their tufts of stigmas ; 

 Canna indica, " Indian shot," is also here in 

 abundance, especially in marshy spots, some- 

 times with pale primrose flower, sometimes with 

 flower of the bright hue of the scarlet gladiolus — 

 "Buddha's blood" the red variety is popularly 

 called — and the seeds of the plant have also their 

 sacred associations in North India, where rosaries 

 are made of them. Vinca rosea shines in simple 



beauty among the beds of blue Commelyna in the 

 more open glades, which mark old clearings for 

 houses or temples. Capparids, with their strange 

 stipitate flowers and fruits and their pungent odour, 

 are as common as the yet more fascinating Calotropis 

 gigantea, whose hoary leaves and pale lilac flowers 

 at once attract attention, and whose wonderfully- 

 arranged corona is a thing of beauty never to be 

 seen without admiration. 



And here, in the heart of the jungle, mid creaking 

 bamboos and giant tamarinds and palms, stands 

 the weirdest of trees with the most perfect of 

 flower-forms, the " temple tree," Plumeria acutifolia 

 — near ally to the frangipani (P. rubra) and also 

 of West-Indian origin. The grey, gaunt, ash- 

 coloured branches of the temple-tree project at the 

 oddest angles, bearing very few leaves, but with 

 rich clusters of the most graceful and most 

 delicately scented flowers. The creamy white of 

 each petal of the funnel-shaped corolla deepens 

 into the richest golden yellow at the base, and the 

 effect is truly exquisite. This tree, and not the 

 Amherstia nobilis, beautiful though the latter is, has 

 been the sacred temple-tree of burial and crema- 

 tion grounds in the Far East, probably since its 

 first introduction from the Far West. But one turns 

 with still greater reverence for a last look at its 

 great neighbour, the giant bo-tree, remembering 

 its yet more sacred and ancient associations with 

 the East. Under its shade one pauses to recon- 

 struct the great temple and monastery in whose 

 court it once stood, and the wild havoc of the 

 jungle is transformed for a moment into fair, 

 orderly, cultured growth, and the yet dimly-sug- 

 gested avenue of sappan-trees seems to be peopled 

 with gentle spirits of departed brethren of the 

 yellow robe. 



The spell broken, we and they leave the garden 

 sighingly, and the bo-leaves shiver in murmuring 

 sympathy of regret for the days that are gone, 

 and passing out into the " lane of lotus-pools," 

 where terminalia-leaves of autumn flame in the 

 setting sun, it seems but fitting that the last of the 

 spirits which we have conjured back from the un- 

 known should vanish amid the mist-like branches 

 of the lofty Casuarina at the gate. 

 Loudon; September, 1895. 



Jersey Biological Station. — The operations 

 at the Research Laboratory of the Jersey Biological 

 Station were gratifying to the director, Mr. James 

 Hornell, during 1895. The workers came not only 

 from manj' parts of Britain, but also from distant 

 places on the Continent of Europe. One marked 

 feature of the influence of such an institution has 

 been the far greater interest latterly manifested by 

 the fishermen and others locally in the life which 

 surrounds them, and the establishment of oyster- 

 parks off the coast of Jersey. There the molluscs 

 are "educated " scientifically by Mr. Sinel, careful 

 notes being taken of their growth and other features 

 in their life-history. 



