250 
PLANTS. 
but observed an ochreous film floating on the surface of some 
eold pools ; and a deposit of the same kind on the banks of one or 
two of the hot springs. 
It is said that the craters of extinguished volcanoes exist in the 
neighbourhood of Los Bagnos, and contain a considerable expanse ' 
and depth of water, the habitation of enormous alligators. That 
the mountains chiefly consist of lava is probable, as the shores of 
the lake are composed of black sand, the debris of compact lava, 
and because the bed of a large river which runs into it is interrupted 
with blocks of the same rock. 
The woods are very thick, and seem to have been but little trod 
by man, and abound in magnificent plants. The unwearied search 
of three persons, in a small space within the immediate precincts 
of the convent, from early in the morning till late in the evening, 
was far from exhausting their numerous species. 
The trees which characterise the scenery are different species of 
palm, especially the coco nut, Cocos nucifera , and the areca nut, 
Areca catechu , and the Nipa fruticans. Of other trees the more 
general and conspicuous were the teak tree, Tectona grandis , a 
very large non-descript species of Ficus , the jack fruit Artocarpus 
incisa, and the bread fruit Artocarpus Integra , the guava and mango. 
Of the less prominent, two species of mimosa , with white and yellow 
flowers, were very abundant. Of other plants, I find remaining 
to me references to specimens of the genera Asclepias , Bauhinia, 
Cordia , Hedysanim, Hibiscus , Justicia , and Poinciana. On the walls 
of the convent a Justicia with yellow flowers grew in the greatest 
profusion. The Justicia bicolor was a very common plant on the 
margin of the woods, and the Vinca rosea , of great size and beauty, 
was the plant of waste ground not only in the neighbourhood of the 
convent, but in every place that I visited on the island. 
A considerable plantation of a species of Musa , from which the 
natives obtain two sets of fibres, the one fine for manufacturing the 
nippis, the other coarse for making cordage, grew near the village of 
