a whole, the most
beautiful island of the East, producing many other gems besides those
of a mineral nature. "It is truly impossible to exaggerate the natural
beauty of Ceylon," says the author of "The Light of Asia," and adds:
"The island is, in fact, one prodigious garden, where the forces of
nature almost oppress and tyrannize the mind, so strong and lavish is
the vegetation." Marco Polo, who visited it in the thirteenth century,
said that it was the choicest island of its size on the earth; and
though, in the dim light of such information as was obtainable in his
day, he made some grotesquely incorrect statements relating to the
country, he was most certainly right in this superlative praise. He
adds that the territory of Ceylon was much larger in former times than
in his day, a great part of it having crumbled away and sunk into the
sea. This is an important conclusion, with which our modern
geographers are very ready to agree, though conjecture only can say to
what extent it may have occurred.

As already mentioned, the arboreal and floral display is glorious
beyond expression, forming a very paradise for botanists. Nature
seems in this latitude to revel in blossoms of novel and fascinating
species. Moisture and heat seek here an outlet to expand their
fructifying powers. Situated in the path of the two monsoons, the
southwest from the Indian Ocean, and the northeast from the Bay of
Bengal, there is hardly a month of the year without more or less rain
in Ceylon; vegetation is therefore always green and leafage luxuriant.
In the jungle, large and brilliant flowers are seen blooming upon tall
trees, while the eye is attracted by others very sweet and tiny in the
prolific undergrowth, nestling among creepers and climbing ferns. In
fact, the flora is endless in variety and intoxicating in fragrance.
Perfume and bloom run riot everywhere. It would be vain to attempt an
enumeration of the myriad examples, but memory is quick to recall the
charming pitcher plant, the lotus,--its flower eight inches in
diameter,--the yellow jessamine, the gorgeous magnolia, with
innumerable orchids in their perfection of form and color, not
forgetting the orange-hued gloriosa, and the beautiful vine bearing
the wild passion-flower. There is also the large pearl-hued
convolvulus which blossoms only at night, known in Ceylon as "the moon
flower," and conspicuous through the dimness by its radiant whiteness.
Many of the orchids exhibit a m