364 THE BEAUTIES OF NATURE chap. 



can be really seen. After walking over a flat 

 uninteresting tract of nearly bare rock, you 

 look down and see a steep irregular wall, 

 expanding deeper into the ocean than the eye 

 can follow, and broken into lovely grottoes 

 and holes and canals, through which small 

 resplendent fish of the brightest blue or gold 

 flit fitfully between the lumps of coral. The 

 sides of these natural grottoes are entirely 

 covered with endless forms of tender-coloured 

 coral, but all beautiful, and all more or less of 

 the fingery or branching species, known as 

 madrepores. It is really impossible to draw 

 or describe the sight, which must be taken 

 with all its surroundings as adjuncts." ^ 



The vegetation of these fairy lands is also 

 very lovely ; the Coral tree (Erythrina) with 

 light green leaves and bunches of scarlet 

 blossoms, the Cocoa-nut always beautiful, the 

 breadfruit, the graceful tree ferns, the 

 Barringtonia, with large pink and white 

 flowers, several species of Convolvulus, 

 and many others unknown to us even by 

 name. 



1 Abercromby, Seas and Sides in many Latitudes. 



