252 . EAMBLES OP A NATUEALIST. [Oh. XV. 



having flowers and buds, and leaves seven feel in dia- 

 meter. 



The native streets of Singapore consist of two-storied 

 houses, with an arcade running along in front, narrow and 

 more or less dilapidated, and blocked up with merchandise. 

 In these the Chinese and Klings live side by side, the houses 

 of the latter being usually less looked after and more ruinous. 

 In their shops are often exposed European articles of the 

 commonest kind and poorest quality, which, however, find 

 a ready sale. In the outskirts of the town and less built-up 

 streets the scene is interesting and picturesque. TaU and 

 graceful Betel Palms, spreading Bananas and Cocoa-nuts, 

 dense and feathery Bamboos and Casuarinas, bushy Screw- 

 pines (Pandanus), handsome-leaved Bread-fruit and Jack 

 trees (Artocarpus), Durians and Mangos, and other fruit- 

 trees constitute the leading features of the vegetation. Man- 

 groves twine their long, rib-like roots in marshy spots, and 

 Melastomas, Hehotropes, sensitive plants, and luxuriant 

 ferns characterise the drier spots. Amid these scenes the 

 variously-costumed people are a never-ending study: the 

 Chinese, generally ugly and dirty, with scanty clothing 

 usually of a dirty colour, and nearly always with a load upon 

 their shoulders, — the women, and often little girls, carrjdng 

 an infant astride upon the hips ; the Klings, erect, hand- 

 some, and picturesquely clad in bright and graceful gar- 

 ments; Malays, in many-coloured patterns, chewing betel- 

 nut, and walking as though bound on a pleasure excursion ; 

 Hadjis, who have made the pilgrimage to Mecca, with yellow 

 turbans on their heads ; the crowds of little children nearly 

 or quite naked, of all shades of colour, and grotesquely 

 shaven ; the half-castes, with a sprinkling of Europeans, 

 altogether constitute an ensemble which the traveller from 



