110 {SLES OF SUMMER. 
hides its head among clusters of dark green leaves, is one of my 
favorite flowers. * * * The yellow jessamine, and a variety 
of flowering myrtles, fill the air with their perpetual fragrance. 
* * + T have seen the sweet briar and the multiflora rose in 
blossom, growing very luxuriantly.” 
“‘The bayonet plant is-properly named for its leaves are thick 
and sharp like those of the aloes, and point upwards like those 
of the pine apple ; it grows about thirty feet high, and forms an 
impenetrable hedge. From the center of the leaves, directly on 
the top, bursts a stem about two feet long which is thickly cov- 
ered with dazzling white flowers, the size and shape of a crown 
imperial; the inside of the calyx is of a pale yellow, and hun- 
dreds of these little bells hanging downwards, cover the stem, 
and the whole is two or three feet in circumference. It has the 
most powerful and oppressive fragrance. The flower of the 
- cocoanut is very beautiful. There is no end to the variety of 
pretty flowering vines and shrubs which spread forth their rain- 
bow colored flowers to charm the eye, and mingle their spicy 
odors with the soft winds to delight the senses. ‘The coffee and 
cotton trees are not very numerous, but the air is eternally 
filled with the fragrance of the orange, lemon and mahogany 
blossoms. There is a wonderful variety of medicinal plants here, 
and almost every leaf affords a panacea for some disease.” 
Oleanders are very common and grow to a large size. They 
adorn many homesteads, but lose something of their value by 
reason of their great abundance. They continued in bloom dur- 
ing all the time we remained in Nassau; the blossoms of some 
were white, others pink, and others a dark red color. A prickly 
pear species of cactus of a vigorous, large, rank growth, is also 
found upon the island, and is in many localities very abundant. 
A large, exquisitely beautiful, plume-like and delicate blossom, 
called the shell plant, was frequently offered for sale in the court 
