es covered with a pearly bloom, while from succulent shoot, leaf,
and tendril rose the delicious scent that had saluted me as soon as I
entered the place.

From this glass palace of a house, as it seemed to me, I went down into
a far hotter place, where the walls were whitewashed and the glass roof
very low. There was a peculiar odour of tan here, and as I closed the
door after me the atmosphere felt hot and steamy.

But the sight that greeted my eyes made me forget all other sensations,
for there all along the centre were what seemed to be beautiful,
luxuriant aloes; and as I thought of the old story that they bloomed
only once in a hundred years, I began to wonder how long it was since
one of these spiky-leaved plants had blossomed, and then I cried
excitedly:

"Pine-apples!"

True enough they were, for I had entered a large pinery where fruits
were ripening and others coming on in the most beautiful manner, while
what struck me most was the perfection and neatness of all the place.

Then I found myself in another grape-house where the vines bore oval
white grapes, with a label to tell that they were Muscats. Then I went
on into a long low house full of figs--small dumpy fig-trees in pots,
with a peculiar odour rising from them through the hot moist air.

Again I was in a long low place something like the pinery, and here I
was amongst melons--large netted-skinned melons of all sizes, some being
quite huge, and apparently ready to cut.

I could have stayed in these various houses for hours, but I was anxious
to see all I could, and I passed on over the red-tiled floor to a door
which opened at once into the largest and most spacious house I had
seen.

Here the air was comparatively cool, and there was quite a soft breeze
from the open windows as I walked along between little trees that formed
a complete grove, with cross paths and side walks, and every long leaf
looking dark and clear and healthy.

I could not keep back an exclamation of delight as I stopped in one of
the paths of this beautiful little grove; for all about me the trees
were laden with fruit in a way that set me thinking of the garden
traversed by Aladdin when in search of the wonderful lamp.

I was in no magic cave, it is true, but I was in a sort of crystal
palace of great extent, with here and there beautiful creepers running
along rods up the sides and across close to the roof, while my trees
were not laden with what looked like bits