duce vegetation so dense and
luxuriant that the air is filled with reeking, choking vapour as in a
huge hothouse.

First there are bananas, the cucumber-shaped fruits which are the food
of millions of human beings. From India and the Sunda Islands this
beneficent tree has spread to Africa and the Mediterranean coasts, to
Mexico and Central America. Its floury-white flesh, juicy and
saccharine, fragrant and well-flavoured, is an excellent article of
food. The large leaves of the banana are useful for various
purposes--sunshades, roof thatch, etc.

When the hot season comes, how pleasant it is to dream in the shadow of
the mango-tree! The tree is about sixty feet high, and the shadow
beneath its bluish-grey leathery leaves is close and dense. The pulp of
the fruit is golden yellow and juicy, rich in sugar and citric acid. It
is difficult to describe the taste, for it is very peculiar; but it is
certainly delicious.

From their home in China and Cochin China the orange and its smaller
brother, the mandarin, have spread over India and far around. Amongst
the many other fruits which abound in India are grapes, melons, apples
and pears, walnuts and figs. Figs are green before they ripen, and then
they turn yellow. The fig-tree is distributed over the whole world
wherever the heat is sufficient. It is mentioned both in the Old and the
New Testament. Under a kind of fig-tree Buddha acquired wisdom in the
paths of religion, and therefore the tree is called _Ficus religiosa_.
_Nymphaea stellaris_, the lotus flower, which, like the water-lily,
floats on water, is another plant of great renown among Buddhists. The
lotus is an emblem of their religion, as the Cross is of Christianity.

In India a large quantity of rice is cultivated. In the north-eastern
angle of the Indian triangle, Bengal and Assam, in Burma, on the
peninsula of Further India (the Malay Peninsula), as well as in the
Deccan, the southern extremity of the triangle, rice cultivation is
extensively developed. Wheat is grown in the north-west, and cotton in
the inland parts of the country. The cotton bush has large yellow
flowers, and when the fruit, which is as large as a walnut, opens, the
inside shows a quantity of seeds closely covered with soft woolly hairs.
The fruit capsules are plucked off and dried in the sun. The fibre is
removed from the seeds by a machine, and is cleaned and packed in bales
which are pressed together and confined by iron bands, and then