family. This garden has
been organized for about seventy-five years,--to be exact, it was
opened in 1819,--during which period the original idea has been well
adhered to, of introducing by its means such plants as are not
indigenous, but which might, if cultivated here, be of real benefit to
the inhabitants. Fortunately, it has always been presided over by an
enthusiastic and scientific horticulturist. All kinds of useful
vegetation of tropical regions are represented, their nature studied,
and a record kept of the same, while seeds, cuttings, fruits, and the
like are freely distributed to farmers and planters, European and
native. The variety of palms in these grounds is a revelation to the
average visitor, as few persons know how many distinctive examples
there are of this invaluable member of the arboreal family of the
East, some of which are stupendous in size. We have been told that the
garden contained two hundred and fifty distinct varieties of the palm,
but one may reasonably have doubts as to so large an aggregate. Among
them are talipots, palmyras, cocoanuts, the slender areca, the date
palm, and the fan palm, already described, spreading out its broad
leaves like a peacock's tail. This is often called the traveler's
tree, because the trunk is never without a supply of pure water with
which to quench his thirst. When pierced with a knife at the juncture
of the stems, it yields copious draughts of water. Here one sees palms
from Cuba, Guinea, China, Africa, and Brazil, each exhibiting some
special characteristics of importance, and all thriving, together with
clumps of climbing rattans. These latter, not thicker than one's
finger, yet wind about the trees from two to three hundred feet in
height, having the longest stem of any known plant. Small groves of
nutmegs, cloves, mangoes, citrons, and pepper-trees attract the
visitor's attention, together with budding cinnamon and cardamom
bushes; nor must we forget to mention the fragrant vanilla-tree, which
to the author recalled a delightful experience in far-away southern
Mexico, where a mountain side near Oxala was rendered lovely and
delicious by the profuse growth of this flavoring product of the
tropics.

Here and there a tall, thrifty acacia is seen, suffused with
golden-yellow bloom in rich profusion. Excepting the California
pepper-tree, with its drooping clusters of useless but lovely scarlet
berries, the varieties of the acacia are unrivaled as beautiful