nut is readily
converted into strong and durable cordage, and the polished shells
into drinking-cups, ladles and spoons; the leaves are frequently used
for thatch, the wood for lathing and musical instruments, and the sap
for toddy, an intoxicating drink very common in the East. The tree is
graceful and pretty, with a tuft of large pinnated leaves at the top,
and nestled cosily in their midst are the clusters of fruit. It grows
to the height of forty or fifty feet, is long-lived, and bears fruit
nearly the whole year round. The cabbage palm is much less common in
a wild state, and few planters will take the trouble to cultivate
it, since a whole tree must be destroyed to obtain a single dish. The
edible part consists of snow-white flakes found just inside the bark
near the top of the tree. When stewed in the expressed juice of the
cocoa-nut it constitutes one of the most luscious dishes I have ever
eaten. The tree is tall and large, and the pinnated leaves very long.

In the moist portions of the jungle toward the foot of the hill were
whole groves of the fragrant pandanus, ferns of infinite variety, and
a species of wild mignonette with a perfume like that of commingled
strawberries and lemon. Now and then we paused beneath the thick
green foliage of the _Magnolia grandiflora_, as it towered in stately
grandeur above its sister flowers, acknowledged queen of the parterre,
and dispensing with genuine Oriental profusion its rare and delicious
perfume. A step farther and our gaze was riveted by the modest purity
of the spotless japonica, the fragrant tuberose and Cape jessamine,
the graceful passion-flower, with its royal beauty and storied
reminiscences, the peerless dauk-male, fragrant and fair, the _Kalla
Indica_, with its five long petals of heavenly blue, the gold-plant
of the Chinese, and crimson boon-gah-riah of the Malays, the last two
consecrated symbols in the religious rites of those nations. What a
medley of sweets, flaunting their gay colors in the bright tropical
sunshine! Then the innumerable company of roses--tea, moss, perpetual,
cluster, climbing, variegated, and a score of others--how fair, fresh
and fragrant they are, peerless, queen-like still, even amid such a
gorgeous array of ripe floral charms! These, and a thousand others for
which we have no names in our language, are scattered profusely over
those sunny lands of dreamy beauty, vieing with each other in rare,
rich perfume, exquisite grace of for