82 
VISITS TO MADAGASCAR. 
CHAP. IV. 
I meet with home flowers, I always expect to find strong 
home feelings, and rejoice in this means of perpetually 
reviving them. 
In an artificial stone basin were a number of arums, re¬ 
sembling Arum costatum. The fleshy root stood a foot or 
more out of the water, and the large, strong-ribbed, shining 
green leaves, seemed to be eight or ten feet high. I fre¬ 
quently saw the same species growing wild in the swampy 
parts of Madagascar. There were also, near the same place, 
an india rubber tree, and some splendid Artocarjpus inte- 
grifolia or jack trees, with their immense oval fruit of a 
greenish-yellow, hanging, not amidst the spreading branches, 
but on a small short stem growing from the trunk or from the 
large branches of the tree. In the kitchen garden, which was 
extensive, the common China rose, or rose Edward, formed 
complete hedges along some of the walks. Peas, French 
beans, and other European vegetables, were growing well 
here, though not so luxuriantly as at Cerne; but of straw¬ 
berries there were large beds apparently going out of bearing. 
Beyond this garden, at some distance in the same direction, 
were ponds supplied with water fowl, and farther on the maize 
and banana plantations, with the huts of the Creoles and other 
labourers. 
Leaving these, I walked over the grounds, which were ex¬ 
tensive and varied, affording occasionally, where the trees and 
brushwood had been cleared away, on one hand, a view of the 
ocean with the small white sails of the coasting vessels glitter¬ 
ing in the morning sun, on the other, of the mountains of 
Moka, and those extending from the Pouce to within about a 
mile from the grounds. 
A deep, rocky, and steep ravine bounded the domain on 
the north, and added greatly to the variety and beauty of the 
scenery. At the bottom of this ravine a rapid stream sparkled 
along its course from the mountains of Moka to the sea. 
Notwithstanding the stony nature of the sides of the ravine. 
