42 
Riot of Foliage. 
phaeton. Gigs bring officials to their offices, merchants to their ware- 
houses, physicians to their patients, the world both pretty and ugly to 
i he promenade, to “The Ring;” — then it is that the younger and wealthier 
ladies mounted on their palfreys and surrounded by equestrian knights 
and knaves, accompany their mother sitting in her gig or phaeton. The 
Ring, at the same time the public highway, is formed of an avenue of 
beautiful cabbage-palms (Orcodo.ua oleracca ) which stretches for an 
hour from the western end of the city along the River.* 
152. I know of no tree that is better suited to such a purpose be- 
cause it diffuses a charm that has in fact something really fairy-like 
about it. The peculiar rustling of the fronds arising from the breezy 
atmosphere, the sudden opening of its large flower-bunch, after burst- 
ing its capsule with a fairly distinct report and, during its erotic ecs- 
tacy, scattering a regular rain of pollen through the air which it tills 
with delightful perfume, — everything in short combines to make a 
promenade along such an avenue one of the most enjoyable of pleas- 
ures. On the western front of this avenue, and shaded by it. there 
stretch certain of the planters’ residences as well as their boiler-houses 
and quarters for the staff: the former are enclosed in the most delight- 
ful gardens, and divided from the lands of their neighbours by glorious 
hedges of Poinciana pulchcrrima Linn., Hibiscus rosa sinensis Linn., 
J asm inn m grandiflorum or Gardenia florida Linn., Clerodendron 
inerme Wall. etc. 
153. What are all our pretty rose-bushes compared with this fresh 
and brilliant mixture of red, yellow, white, and blue? What is the 
Northern floral fragrance by the side of this perfect perfume? If we 
turn our gaze from the outer circuits to the inner, the house itself is 
fouud to be regularly enveloped with trees of the glorious Jacaranda 
rlombifolv.i Meyer, and </. procera Spr., Cassia , fistula Linn., with its 
long dependent pods, Cassia ■ mulUjuga Rich., Erythrina Corallodendron 
and E. speciosa Amir., while the golden fruits are to be seen glowing in 
the dark green foliage of the Orange-trees, and the beautiful Aeschy- 
nomenc cocci nea and A. grandiflora Linn., with their large butterfly 
buds, illumining the fairy-like blossoms of Ixora coccinea Linn, in be- 
tween the lovely hedges. 
154. On its eastern front the Avenue is directly bordered by the 
dwellings of the negroes working on the estates: these are intersected 
by green grass flats where an equally beautiful naturally grown flora 
comes into prominence. The rich wealth of flower of Asclcpias curas- 
savica Linn., Crotalaria glabra Willd., Piiellia tuberosa Linn., Leon- 
otis nepetaefolia R. Br., St'achytarpheta jamaicensis Valil. and Tiari- 
dium indicum Leli. vie with the enlivening groups of Lantana Camara 
Linn., Cassia alata and C. occidentalis Linn., Mimosa, and Cordia until 
one’s view is lost in the sugar-, plantain-, and coffee-fields and in tin 
giant bushes of bainbu now and again rising behind the houses, when it 
finally becomes limited by the dark fringes of the virgin forest. The 
water trenches running along the Avenue are covered with the beautiful 
I he avenue is the present Houston Palm Avenue : the Ring — the circular area where the 
carriages, etc. turned— of which no traces remain, was at the entrance of Agricola Vi! ' age — 
(J.R.) ° ' 
