and, taking one of the paths to the
right, led me forward towards the river.

I had asked him if he would point out any trees specially worthy of
being sketched, and he had very readily acceded to my request. After we
had walked a few minutes, however, he said--

"I am in a difficulty; I do not know what to show you. We have some most
curious plants in the garden, but there is nothing remarkable about them
externally. I suppose you want something with a _cachet_ for the
public?"

I said he was quite right in his supposition. What I wanted was
something of interest from a picturesque point of view to the general
public.

"There," he said, pointing to a tall tree with a growth and foliage of
no distinct character, "is a strychnine tree; from the berries of that
tree we get nux vomica; but if you drew that, they would say, 'Why, it
is an apple-tree; it is not worth going to the tropics to see that.'"

By this time we had almost reached the banks of the Tjiliwong, and again
turning to the right, where grew the pandans, "There," he said, "is a
tree with aerial roots. It comes from the Nicobar Islands, just
north-west of Sumatra. I think it is about twenty-eight feet in height.
No, the roots do not contribute to its nourishment; they are useless
but very curious." From the pandans we passed to the palms. First we
noticed a specimen of comparatively low growth, with its leaves
springing from the ground like the leaves of a primrose--_Ladoicea
Sechellarum_. It bore, I was told, the largest fruit and the largest
leaves of any known tree, the former being two, and the latter ten, feet
in diameter. "Unfortunately, there is no fruit on it," said Dr. Treub,
"but you can see _that_ in any museum. You see, the stems of the leaves
are as hard as iron." Indeed, they gave quite a metallic ring as he
drove the ferrule of his walking stick against them. A few steps further
brought us to a tree which Dr. Treub said had no special
characteristics, but was a perfect natural specimen of the palm family.
It stood about forty feet in height, and was furnished with foliage
which hung gracefully suspended from a straight tapering stem. Then at
the next corner, where its beauty showed to advantage, we came upon a
group of red-stemmed palms from the little island of Banka. A fortnight
later I was anchored off Mentok, the capital of that island, in a Dutch
mail boat; but at this time I had no knowledge of the _habitat_ of this
fair tree--nor,