SWEET FLOWERS. 
175 
he can scarcely fail to feel a pang of sympathy for 
what seems to be the complaint of gentleness in 
distress. 
Nor is it true that our groves and fields are 
destitute of fragrance. In spring the Oranges and 
Limes that are planted in such profusion upon every 
estate, both on mountain and in plain, and even 
border the public roads, are covered with their abun- 
dant blossom, and the air all around is loaded with 
the richest perfume. So it is in the upland districts, 
when the Coffee plantations are in bloom, the flower 
of which tree is as fragrant as it is delicately beautiful. 
In the edges and borders of woods there is a common 
) 
nearly allied to the cultivated species botanically, as 
it is both in beauty and fragrance. Butterflies, 
Moths, Bees, and Flies throng around its lovely white 
blossoms, the delicious and powerful odour from 
which is diffused to a great distance. 
I have observed that many flowers in Jamaica pos- 
sess the aromatic odour so much admired in our 
pinks and carnations, that of the Clove. The beauti- 
ful plants called the red and the white Spanish Jas- 
mine {Plumieria rubra and P. alho)^ common shrubs, 
whose thick stems, leathery leaves, and noble spikes 
of blossom form so striking objects in the smaller 
woods, have this odour. I found it in the blossom 
of a species of Pancratium, with small bulbs and 
large oval leaves, growing on the St. Elizabeth’s 
mountains ; the fragrance, which was very abundant, 
I should not have been able to distinguish from that 
of a carnation. That gorgeous flower, the Night- 
I 4 
