1 
THE TRAVELLER’S TREE. 
Ravenala mada^ascariensls. 
[Photo by i?, E. HoUtum, 
to drink water from the Ravenala trees than to resort to'a 
stream. The stems make their house-walls and the leaves 
make the ^thatching to such a great extent that for 
" Traveller's Tree ” one might with justice substitute the 
less picturesque name of “ Builder's Tree." 
One of the oldest of the African Oil Palms that the 
Gardens possess is upon this Lawn. It is not of a good 
commercial type^ for the races which have been longest 
in the East are not. 
Near it are two gmfted Rubber Trees, Hevea 
brasiliensiSf the grafts having been taken from a certain 
very desirable tree, which was raised in 1884, and found to 
be the best milker " in the old Economic Garden. 
At one period in the history of the Gardens, a road 
diverged northwards towards the Bandstand Hill, from the 
Mam Gate Road at the Gate ; and traces of it persist. The 
spreading Rain-tree, Samanea SamaUt which almost touches 
the Gate, and the pendulous-branched Nutmeg, Horsfieldia 
sylvestris, behind it, were planted at the side of this road ; 
then, in 1884, it was narrowed to a path and a double 
row of Araucarias planted along it. 
The Rain-tree is a native of the northern parts of 
South America, whence it was early carried round the 
World ; and for two centuries it has been in favour as a 
quick growing shade-tree. It is said that its curious name 
came from a habit of putting out new leaves with the 
coming of periodic rains, but where and when is not 
known ; also that its leaves fold when rain is approaching ; 
and it is by others stated that it came from the falling of 
honey-dew excreted by certain insects, which, in the West 
Indies, feed on it. Its leaves fold j but that is a sleeping 
position assumed at night. 
8 — 
