102 REMINISCENCES OF A VOYAGE TO AND FROM CHINA. 
Renealmia exaltata ; Nyctanthus sambac; Justicia coccinea; 
Eschynomene grandifiora ; Ixora coccinea ; Nerium Oleander ; Plu- 
mieria alba el rubra ; Cerbcra laurifolia ; Taberncemontana coronaria ; 
Gardenia Jlorida ; Gloriosa superba ; Bauhinia raceinosa ; Poinciana 
pulcherrima; Averrlioa bilimbi et carambola ; Eugenia Jambos; Lager- 
strcemeria Indica ; Bombax Ceiba ; Hibiscus Rosa Sinensis ; Thespesia 
populnea ; Erythrina cornUodendrum, &c. The above are what may 
be called the most ornamental plants in the gardens about Madras ; 
and though many of them are occasionally flowered in our stoves in this 
country, no conception from these specimens can be had of their 
glorious appearance in that climate. 
Their fruits are excellent and numerous : the shaddock, or pom- 
melmoe, as it is called by the Portuguese residents, is the most 
magnificent of fruit trees—the bulk and very regular rotundity of the 
head, the amplitude and deep green of the foliage, and the size and 
rich colour of the fruit, combine to make it one of the most attractive 
of plants. Next the mangoes, guavas, dates, jacks, limes, cocoa-nuts, 
&c., of the woods, and the pine-apples of their gardens, are all in 
abundance. Their culinary vegetables are yams of excellent quality, 
rice (the staple food of the country), the unripe fruit of several species 
of Solatium ovigerum, or egg-plant, and those of Averrhoa carambola . 
As greens they use the leaves of Arum, or Caladium esculentum, and as 
spinach the leaves of the Amarantus oleraceus. 
Our direct course to China lay through the Straits of Malacca, 
that is, between the large island of Sumatra and the Asiatic main. 
This narrow sea is studded with numerous small islands and islets, 
all of which, as well as the continental shore, bear a thick and lofty 
mass of luxuriant vegetation. At some distance within the entrance 
into the Strait from the Bay of Bengal, lies Pulo Penang, or Prince 
of Wales Island, then an infant settlement belonging to the East India 
Company. Here we remained for a week or ten days, during which 
period we were almost constantly on shore, roaming about as far as we 
durst venture into the woods and wilds of the island. 
The character of the trees, shrubs, and herbage on this fertile spot 
is much like that which prevails over all that part of the East. The Tec- 
tona grandis is one of the largest trees. Palms abound, and particularly 
the areca, which yields the betel-nut, and from the prevalence of which 
the island has its name, Pulo Penang, signifying the Island of betel-nut 
trees. Here are also many varieties of the genus Ficus, of very large 
size, together with Michelia, Tamarindus, Artocarpus , Anacardium , 
Annona, Bombax, Calophyllum, Carica, Caryophillus, Citrus, Dios - 
corea , Eugenia, Garcinia, Laurus, four species, Lycium, Mangofera, 
