require no
cultivation, after being once set out; though by close trimming the
strength is thrown downward, and the shrub is thought to render a better
crop. The raising of the spice was once a government monopoly, but all
restrictions are now removed, and the plantations near to Colombo are
private property. In driving through them--for they are miles in extent,
and are poetically called cinnamon gardens--we tried in vain to detect
the perfume derived from cinnamon; far too decided and pungent to be
mistaken for aught else. It is not the bloom nor the berry which throws
off this scent, but the wounded bark in process of being gathered at the
semi-annual harvest. These cinnamon fields were very sweet and fragrant;
there was the perfume of flowers in the air, but not even poetical
license could attribute it to the cinnamon.

The wide-spread coffee plantations were much more attractive to the eye,
the cultivation of which forms one of the principal industries of the
island, supplemented by the raising and exporting of rice, tea,
cocoanuts, pine-apples, plumbago, and precious stones. Ceylon, at one
time, almost rivaled Java in the production of coffee; statistics
showing that her export of the berry reached the large amount of a
million hundred-weight per annum, before it was suddenly checked by the
leaf disease, which has impoverished so many of the local planters.
Among its wild animals are elephants, deer, monkeys, bears, and
panthers,--fine specimens of which are preserved in the excellent museum
near Colombo. Pearl oysters abound on the coast, and some superb
specimens of this beautiful jewel have been found here, while no shore
is richer in the variety and quality of its finny tribe. Game birds,
especially of aquatic sorts, prevail.

Specimens of the ebony, satin-wood, and celamendar-trees were met with,
the latter the most highly prized of all cabinet woods, growing in wild
luxuriance, surrounded by palms, bamboos, fragrant balsams, tall ferns,
and the india-rubber-tree, large and lofty, with a majority of its
anaconda-like roots lying above the surface of the ground. Here and
there we came upon dark, shady pools, covered with the blooming lotus,
like our pond-lilies, except that they are much larger. The floral
display was fascinating. Nature seemed to revel in blossoms of various,
and, to us, unknown species. While some large and brilliant flowers
bloomed on trees, others, very lovely and sweet, caught the eye am