d out to us growing in thrifty abundance close at
hand. Nowhere had we previously seen such extraordinary exuberance and
variety of tropical vegetation combined.

Some of the palms were of stupendous size and height, while there
appeared to be a spirit of emulation between talipots, palmyras,
date-palms and fan-palms, as to which should develop into the finest
specimen of its class. There were plenty of flying foxes in these
grounds, and some remarkable specimens of the jungle-rope creepers, or
elephant-creepers, as they are more generally called here, which clasp
the trees to which they attach themselves as if with the purpose of
their destruction, which they often succeed in producing by their
anaconda-like-hug. The flying foxes, as was explained to us, are a great
annoyance, and destructive to fruit and blossoms, always attacking the
choicest specimens. They move in flocks or herds of hundreds from one
place to another, as the most desirable food tempts them. The natives
never touch them, but hunters from Europe have cooked and eaten them,
pronouncing the flesh almost the same as that of the hare, with similar
game-like flavor. It is not safe to walk much in the more moist portions
of the garden as there is an abundance of snakes, and especially of one
poisonous kind which is the terror of the natives.

On the passage from and back to Colombo, the scenery was grand, and a
source of great pleasure, for our appreciation in this line was becoming
somewhat trained. So abrupt was the rising grade of the road on the
portion approaching Kandy, that even our small train of two passenger
cars required two engines to enable it to surmount the hills. The road
wound about the mountain in rather startling proximity to the deep
gorges and precipitous cliffs; but, as remarked above, giving us
glimpses of scenery worthy of the Yosemite in the opposite hemisphere.
At the several small stations where we made a brief halt, girls and boys
brought to the windows of the cars yellow bunches of freshly picked,
ripe bananas, very choice and appetizing, the price of which was six
pennies for a bunch of twelve or fifteen, and so we partook of the fat
of the land. New England fruits, as a rule, are more satisfactory to us
than those of any other country, delicious as we sometimes find them in
the tropics; but an exception may be safely made in favor of freshly
picked, ripe, luscious bananas and pine-apples. Green cocoanuts, which
the natives m