114 THE BOTANICAL MAGAZINE. IToi. xxxi. No. $64. 



I shall not attempt to translate the whole poem, but merely 

 to give the meaning of it as well as I can. 



" Nothing can be more surprising than to see that there 

 still exists a primeval forest, while the civilization has long 

 since swept over nearly all of this county. When travelling 

 through the mountains of Cochin China, I was greatly 

 astonished to find an immense forest, stretching away like a 

 broad ocean. The regions being very far from human dwellings, 

 there was no trace of cultivation, nor could one see even the 

 smoke from a woodcutter's hut. The ground in the region was 

 rather poor, and the growth seemed, therefore, to have been 

 very slow. Yet, the trees in the forest were all very tall and 

 large, giving one the impression that they were the growth of 

 immeasurable ages. The leaves, stout as a dragon's mustaches 

 (plainly denoting Conifer leaves) told how very severe the cold 

 had been in winter, and the fallen pieces of bark over-lapping 

 one another like a monster's scales showed how frequent were 

 the thunderbolts in summer. The central shaft of a five-storied 

 pagoda could be made of a single trunk from this forest, so 

 tall and big were the trees generally. Yet, it was very regret- 

 able to see that owing to the remoteness of the region and the 

 steepness of the mountains, it was impossible to carry them 

 out for use. They had attained, therefore, to a very great age 

 without being neither employed nor cut. Some that had died 

 from very age, remained up-right as they were, turned to white 

 skeletons, and stood side b}' side like an army of ghosts with- 

 out mark of ruin or injury. And yonder the broad ocean of the 

 darkgreen forest stretched away far to the horizon without a 

 break. Neither valley nor ridge was visible, all being covered 

 uniformly with one mass of green. At one time, perfect quiet 

 reigned over all the place, but at another it was broken by 

 winds which turned all the foliage on the mountains into toss- 

 ing waves. I had already travelled throughout this country 

 and found it everywhere cultivated. Never had I seen so 

 wonderful a sight as this view of a primeval forest." 



The description of the forest in the original poem is done 

 with exquisite beauty, (which, however, certainly does not 



