58 
VISITS TO MADAGASCAR. 
CHAP. III. 
Colvillia, as well as some fine and fragrant species of Dombeya, 
and other kinds, were introduced from Madagascar by M. Bojer, 
who also brought the kiglia from the coast of Africa in 1824. 
Besides these and other large-growing trees, there are 
numbers of gay shrubs and flowers, either indigenous, or im¬ 
ported from India, Java, and the adjacent isles, from South 
America, Africa, and Madagascar, as well as from Australia 
and Europe. The double and single blossomed oleander, 
Nerium splendens , the bright pink-leaved dracaena, are 
grown in almost every garden; and near one of the public roads 
I sometimes stopped to look at a splendid Braughmansia, grow¬ 
ing, not as we see it in England, in spacious and tasteful con¬ 
servatories, but by the side of a ditch that drained part of the 
town, with numbers of its large white trumpet-shaped flowers 
hanging in clusters about the windows of a printing office, and 
perhaps cheering, by the beauty of their form and colour, the 
labours of the workmen within. The rich, delicate, and fra¬ 
grant Stephanotis floribuncla, with which the daughters of our 
highest aristocracy have garlanded their brows on the bridal 
morning, here climbs up the lattice-work of the verandahs, and 
contends for space with the scarlet passion-flower or the pink, 
waxy, and porcelain or gem-like flowers of the Hoya carnosa or 
the yellow-flowering Allamanda cathartica. The beautiful 
Dalbergia scandens frequently covered the walls; and the 
Cry'pta stygia , a purple-flowered creeper from Madagascar, 
occasionally overspread the largest trees. The Lantana 
aurantiaca in some places forms hedges; and elegantly-grow¬ 
ing cactuses, presenting at times long masses of bright yellow 
flowers, are cut off the tops and sides of the walls with a 
bill-hook or sickle. To all these, roses from England have 
been recently added, and many of the sorts, especially the 
Bourbon and tea-scented Chinas, thrive remarkably well, 
though the colour of the flowers is paler, and the fragrance 
fainter than when grown in England. 
