ncision of the stem, stud the
glades with stiffly-fluted fans. Lilac thunbergia wreaths over-arching
boughs, and passion-flower flings white and crimson garlands over turf
flushed with the pink blossoms of the sensitive plant. Gold mohur and
red poinsettia blaze with fiery splendour, and huge crotons, with
velvety leaves of pink, violet, and chocolate, grow to the height of
forest trees. The tangle of brilliant flowers, systematically arranged
by the concealed art of the Eastern horticulturist, shows many weird
botanical forms. Green spears, bristling on mossy banks, are starred
with crimson and barred with orange. Wine-coloured cacti twist
blue-green spikes and stems in grotesque contortions, and topaz or
ruby-tinted calladiums flame in thickets of hot colour outside cool
green dells, filled by a forest of tropical ferns, mosses, and
creepers. Lack of botanical knowledge constitutes a sore disadvantage
in this treasury of floral beauty, but happily we may "consider the
lilies," without cataloguing them, in this garden, "beautiful for
situation," and worthy to be a "joy of the whole earth." The sombre
jungle on the mountain side supplies the atmosphere of mystery which
enhances the ideal peace of the cloistered Paradise, wrapt in the
embrace of the haunted hills, and numbered among those visions of an
earlier Eden, only realised in the Asiatic birthplace of Humanity which
contained the typical Garden of the World, Divinely planted, where the
Voice from Heaven deepened the music of whispering leaves and sighing
breeze.

A purple-red pat--for even the jasper-tinted tropical soil is
beautiful, climbs through the glorious woods to the chief Sanatorium of
the Malay Peninsula. A free fight among the coolies before starting
demands a lengthy exercise of that stolidity with which the Western
pilgrim must invest himself, as the invulnerable armour needed by the
conflict of daily life. As a mere matter of personal convenience, this
quality bears scant resemblance to the weapons enumerated by S. Paul in
the Christian panoply. The oppressive heat, the futility of argument in
an almost unknown tongue, and the general uncertainty of the subject in
dispute, gradually producing this spurious virtue as the external
decoration of sorely-exasperated souls. The exertion of the long ascent
in the steaming heat requires six coolies for every chair. The red road
mounts through enchanting vistas of palms and creepers, on the edge of
the dark