indeed, had I seen it before, although a few weeks
afterwards I found two fine specimens growing on either side of the
entrance of a private house at Singapore. It needs an expert to describe
so rare a combination of brilliant colours and graceful form. Mr.
Forbes, the naturalist, in his account of his "Wanderings in the Eastern
Archipelago," tells how he passed down through "plots of amaryllideae,
iris, and other water-loving plants" in this quarter of the garden; and
how he found the "glory" of "the richest _palmetum_ in the world--the
_Cyrtostachys renda_, whose long bright scarlet leaf-sheaths and
flower-spathes, and its red fruit and deep yellow inflorescence hanging
side by side, at once arrest the eye."

From this point we again ascended to the higher level of the garden by a
path paved with pebbles and cut into steps. Then "faring on our way," we
reached the division marked _Anonaceae_, and there my eye came upon a
sight which rivalled in wonder the golden bough of the sixth AEneid
which the doves of Venus showed to AEneas:

"Tollunt se celeres, liquidumque per aera lapsae,
Sedibus optatis geminae super arbore sidunt,
Discolor unde auri per ramos aura refulsit."

In this case the "contrasting golden beam" shone not from the foliage,
but, stranger still, from the black trunk of a tall tree. It was a
_stelecho-karpus_, or stem-flowering tree. The trunk from which the deep
saffron flowers sprang was about one foot and three inches in diameter,
and the flowers themselves were much like bunches of primroses, only
darker in colour and divested of their leaves. Unlike AEneas, we passed
forward without any floral spoils--for, indeed, we had no such awkward
personage as Charon to reckon with--among dark, cool, tree-arched
avenues of figs and banyans to the northern limit. On our way we paused
once to notice a fine "sacred fig" of India (_urostigma_), a tree with
remarkably angular boughs; and again when Dr. Treub stopped, and,
pointing to the frangipane blossom, said, "That is the flower of
religion in India, being sacred to Buddha; the Malays here call it the
'flower of the dead.'" In this quarter the trees were larger and of more
robust growth, and the appearance of the garden more natural to my
Northern eyes. A sudden turn brought us to a projecting spur, on which
was built a little summer-house commanding a view of the surrounding
country. Far away the double mountain Pangerango and Gede rose blue and