VEGETABLE EXPORTS. 99 



orchid is one that all lovers of what is beautiful and fragrant 

 will eagerly welcome. Its scent equals the sweetest lilies of 

 the valley, and its flowers are of the deepest golden yellow, 

 most richly striped with crimson." * 



One of the finest displays of flowers I ever saw in Mada- 

 gascar was on the sea-shore near the mouth of the river 

 Matitanana. A considerable space of ground was covered 

 with bushes of what I suppose were orchis plants, although 

 the flowers exactly resembled those of an orchid growing on 

 trees higher up the source of the river. Each bush had a 

 score or two of branches, and each branch bore a number of 

 large waxy white flowers, all in bloom, the whole forming a 

 magnificent sitjht. 



Vegetable Exports. — Many of the vegetable productions of 

 Madagascar are of considerable commercial value. Of late 

 years large quantities of gum-copal have been exported. This 

 is obtained from more than one species of tree growing chiefly 

 on the eastern coast. The forests are rich in gum-producing 

 trees, and long lists of such are given in the works of early 

 writers on Madagascar. The gum of certain trees has been 

 used from time immemorial as incense, for in the worship of 

 the charms or ody venerated by the Malagasy tribes, these 

 were always invoked together with the fumes of fragrant gums ; 

 and some have supposed that the most frequent name for the 

 Supreme Being, Andriamdnitra — that is, " The Fragrant One " 

 — is derived from the use of incense in the ancient religious 

 worship of the people. 



Large quantities of indiarubber have also been exported 

 from Madagascar during the past few years. Some of this is 

 obtained from a liana or creeper ( VaJiea gummifera), but the 

 greater portion comes from trees of a considerable size. But 

 such a wanton destruction of the trees has taken place that 

 unless some restrictions are placed upon the production, the 

 trade will be wholly at an end at no very distant period. 



From what has been already said it will be seen that 

 the vegetable productions of Madagascar are very varied and 

 abundant, and were European capital and skill to be intro- 

 duced, large quantities of almost every kind of tropical pro- 

 * Gardener's Chronicle, May 28, 1858. 



