DESERTED VILLAGE. 
53 
in the loose coral, and supported by broad but- 
tresses which extended beyond the base of their 
trunks. One giant tree had fallen, and his prostrate 
form was ahready clothed with a drooping pall of 
epiphytel^and nearly screened from view by the 
pinnate fronds of that line fern Lomaria, and the 
cylindric branches of enormous club -mosses, or 
Lycopodiums. A species of solitary - wasp, and 
legions of indefatigable white-ants, were engaged on 
the work of demolition, which in the tropics is soon 
effected ; while in the tree-tops overhead, the cicadse 
were chanting a monotonous dirge over the decay- 
ing form of the vegetable giant. This was the 
first time I had seen the Cycas in fruit, and I 
obtained some fine specimens, of the size and shape 
of large pine-apples. I perceived also a species of 
Nepenthes, with very pretty pitchers, growing in 
great luxuriance in one part of the island. 
Continuing my walk, I came upon a deserted 
village, which offered a picture of mingled luxu- 
riance and desolation — the luxuriance natural, the 
desolation human. The ruined huts were en- 
