CHAP. IV. 
THE DOMAIN OF REDUIT. 
81 
seemed to me nearly ten degrees cooler than Port Louis. I 
had much conversation with the governor on the state of 
education in the island, and at a late hour retired to rest. 
It was to me a novel spectacle to see large tiger skins hanging 
over the banisters of the stairs leading to the sleeping rooms, 
looking as if but recently taken from the bodies of their 
owners, and showing the holes of the bullets by which they 
had been killed. The governor had formerly resided in 
India, and I supposed these were trophies of the wild sports 
of the East. 
Early the next morning I walked over the extensive 
domain of Reduit, visiting portions which I had been unable 
to reach on the previous evening. The house, which stands 
upon a gradual slope extending from the elevated plain to 
the sea, is spacious but low. The centre, both of the front 
and the back of the house, is protected from the sun by broad 
corridors, and the ends are shaded by verandahs and trellis- 
work overgrown with passion-flowers and other creeping 
plants. On the, side of the house towards the sea was a 
flower garden, and at the northern end a lawn bordered with 
shrubs and enlivened by flower beds cut out in the turf. At 
Reduit, as well as Cerne, I found several familiar plants, and 
their unexpected appearance seemed like meeting with old 
friends. Among the roses, a small flowering noisette was in 
full bloom. Devoniensis appeared with long slender shoots 
and thin-petalled pale flowers. Fuchsias, recently introduced 
from the Cape, oenotheras, achimenes, gloxinias, and helio¬ 
tropes, mignonette, and violets, were growing side by side with 
Allamanda Schottii. Russelia juncea, Poinsettia, Gardenia, 
and other plants requiring artificial heat in England, all 
flourished luxuriantly in the open air. A beautiful aleurites 
grew near the end of the house, and beside it a fine tree, 
Abutilon striatum , with large, dark-orange flowers, having 
deep, clear, claret-coloured pencilled markings. Wherever 
