are carefully cultivated in these little gardens,
and occasionally the Rose-apple and the Cachu-nut, the Pappaya, and
invariably as plentiful a supply of Plantains as they find it prudent to
raise without inviting the visits of the wild elephants, with whom they
are especial favourites.

[Footnote 1: See Vol. II. p. 125.]

These, and the Bilimbi and Guava, the latter of which is naturalised in
the jungle around every cottage, are almost the only fruits of the
country; but the Pine-apple, the Mango, the Avocado-pear, the
Custard-apple, the Rambutan (_Nephelium lappaceum_), the Fig, the
Granadilla, and a number of other exotics, are successfully reared in
the gardens of the wealthier inhabitants of the towns and villages; and
within the last few years the peerless Mangustin of Malacca, the
delicacy of which we can imagine to resemble that of perfumed snow, has
been successfully cultivated in the gardens of Caltura and Colombo.

With the exception of the orange, the fruits of Ceylon have one
deficiency, common, I apprehend, to all tropical countries. They are
wanting in that piquancy which in northern climates is attributable to
the exquisite perfection in which the sweet and aromatic flavours are
blended with the acidulous. Either the acid is so ascendant as to be
repulsive to the European palate, or the saccharine so preponderates as
to render Singhalese fruit cloying and distasteful.

Still, all other defects are compensated by the coolness which pervades
them; and, under the exhaustion of a blazing sun, no more exquisite
physical enjoyment can be imagined than the chill and fragrant flesh of
the pine-apple, or the abundant juice of the mango, which, when freshly
pulled, feels as cool as iced water. But the fruit must be eaten
instantly; even an interval of a few minutes after it has been gathered
is sufficient to destroy the charm; for, once severed from the stem, it
rapidly acquires the temperature of the surrounding air.

Sufficient admiration has hardly been bestowed upon the marvellous power
displayed by the vegetable world in adjusting its own temperature,
notwithstanding atmospheric fluctuations,--a faculty in the
manifestation of which it appears to present a counterpart to that
exhibited by animal oeconomy in regulating its heat. So uniform is the
exercise of the latter faculty in man and the higher animals, that there
is barely a difference of three degrees between the warmth of the body
in the utmost end