12 DOTTINGS ON THE ROADSIDE. [Ciiap. I.—B. S. 
It took four hours and a half to get across the 
isthmus, which to some of my fellow-passengers 
seemed long; hut not so to me, who had formerly 
spent four days in going over the same distance. At 
the various stations where the train stops there are 
very fine American houses, surrounded by nice flower- 
gardens and neat white fences, forming a singular 
contrast with the wretched huts of the native negroes, 
which are neither better nor worse than I have known 
them twenty years ago. Yet food is as abundant as 
ever, and wages are much higher. To me it was a 
great treat to revel once more amongst the vegetation 
of a country about which I wrote the first Flora. 
The palm-groves seemed to nod their feathery leaves 
in friendly recognition; and many of the trees and 
shrubs which I introduced to Science seemed to be so 
many old friends, glad to see me again. 
When we arrived at Panama the first great im¬ 
provements that struck me were omnibuses and carts. 
As late as 1848 a cruise upon wheels in the isthmus 
would have been impossible, there being not even a 
wheelbarrow in the whole country. The introduction of 
these improvements led to others, one of these being the 
pulling down of the old “land gate,” and part of the wall 
of the city, to allow the vehicles to come into Panama ; 
and one of the others, the making of a good carriage- 
road to the savanas, where you have the most lovely 
park-like scenery in the world, —beautiful short grass, 
capital for galloping upon, clumps of fine trees and 
shrubs, a gently-undulating ground, little rivulets 
and now and then glimpses of the city, the bay, and 
