256 EAMBLES OF A NATUEALIST. [Oh. XV. 



up by a subscription among tbe merchants, &c., wbicb does 

 not amount to more than one hundred dollars a month ; and 

 they are superintended by a Scotch gardener, who went 

 out some 15 years since, in the time of nutmeg planting. 

 The garden is pretty, but very exposed and unsheltered, and 

 far too hot to walk in, except in early morning or in the 

 evening, when people drive out from Singapore. It is situ- 

 ated on the edge of the jungle, and some strips of the 

 original wood remaining uncut form a pleasant shady walk, 

 while here and there some of the jungle trees have been left 

 standing. Besides these, some fine Coniferae, as the Norfolk 

 Island Pine, Araucarias, Casuarinas, &c., flourish, and afford 

 a diversity. Many roses are cultivated, and other horti- 

 culturists' flowers, but nothing interesting in a botanical 

 point of view, except perhaps the great spider-orchis (Gram- 

 matophyllum), a magnificent bush, crowded with its mottled 

 rich brown flowers. A grass is sown which makes a good 

 turf, and a large sheet of ornamental, water is in preparation, 

 which wUl form a very desirable and pleasiag feature. The 

 gardeners employed are nearly aU Malays. 



One of the commonest roadside plants of Singapore is the 

 sensitive plant (Mimosa sensitiva), which grows ia profusion 

 in waste places, and on banks by the wayside. It is a very 

 low, spreading plant, of suffiruticose habit, seldom rising 

 higher than the grass among which it grows, or more than 

 six inches from the ground, but covering large spots, which 

 are distinguished from the rough herbage by its neat, regular 

 foliage. It seems to be almost constantly in flower, for in 

 October, November, and May I noticed numbers of the 

 little round tufts characteristic of this acacia (Mimosa), and 

 of a pale flesh-colour. The manner in which the aspect of 

 such a little bush is altered by a touch is very remarkable. 



