ther a few indispensables;
and we were set down on the Barrie's quarterdeck, portmanteaus,
sketch-books, specimen-baskets and all, before the anchor was weighed.

The monsoon was favorable, and seven days' sail brought us to the
river's mouth, and a pull thence of thirty miles in the narcodah's
boat to the "city of kings."

Siam is verily the queen of the tropics in regard to the abundance,
variety and unequaled lusciousness of her fruits. Here are found those
of China, greatly enriched in tint and flavor by being transplanted to
this warmer climate; and those of Western Asia, in this fruitful soil
far more productive than in the sterile regions of Persia and Arabia;
while numberless varieties from the Malayan and Indian archipelagoes,
united with the host of those indigenous to the country, complete a
list of some two hundred or more species of edible fruits. In this
clime of perennial freshness trees bear nearly the year round, and so
productive is the soil that the annual produce is almost incredible.
The tax on orchards alone yields to the Crown a revenue of some five
millions of dollars per annum, as I was informed by the late "second
king" of Siam. It is not unusual to find on a single branch the bud
and blossom, together with fruit in several different stages. Thus, at
the merest trifle of expense a table may be supplied during the entire
year with forty or fifty specimens of fresh, ripe fruit. Among these
are many varieties of oranges and pineapples, pumeloes, shaddocks,
pawpaws, guavas, bananas, plantains, durians, jack-fruit, melons,
grapes, mangoes, cocoa-nuts, pomegranates, soursaps, linchies,
custard-apples, breadfruit, cassew-nuts, plums, tamarinds,
mangosteens, rambustans, and scores of others for which we have no
names in our language. Tropical fruits are generally juicy, sweet with
a slight admixture of acid, luscious, and peculiarly agreeable in a
warm climate; and when partaken of with temperance and due regard
to quality they are highly promotive of health. For this reason
Booddhists regard the destruction of a fruit tree as quite an act of
sacrilege, and their sacred books pronounce a heavy malediction on
those who wantonly commit so great a crime. One who has tasted the
fruits of the tropics only at a distance from the soil that produces
them can form no conception of the real flavor of plums and grapes
that never felt the frosty atmosphere of our northern clime; of
oranges plucked ripe from the