, 1886-03-11
BOTANICAL aAaDsss OF MARTINIQUE


The wonders OF Tropical Vegetation
Vivid Description OF the Scenery.
In u short time too short, considering
the beauty and novelty of the Scenery
we arrived at the entrance to the botan-
ical gardens. Somebody had told me
that these gardens were well worth see
ing, but that, / soon found, was n mild
way OF expressing it. The entrance was
not at all imposing-only a big iron gate,
with a small porter's lodge beside it.
Carriages are not allowed to enter, so we
left the carriage at the gate and walked
in. There were on the right az we
entered several clusters of mammoth
bamboos, each cluster as high as a house
and MS large around at the base as three
or four-hogsheads. On the left, n short
distance in, a high steep hill, and at its
base a small artificial pond, walled in
with rustic stonework. md a miniature
cataract supplying it with water, and the
surface Of the pond covered with lilies
and other aquatic plants. Here the path
turned sharp TO the left and entered a
glen between two high mountains.
The foliage was 50 thick it was impos-
sible to tell where the hills began, and
whether the big trees were unusually
high or whether they grew on the mount
ain side. Wherever they grew, they
were of immense hight. There were
scores of royal palms, running such a
distance into the air that it made ones
neck ache to look up at the tops of them;
and generally their straight round
trunks were festooned with parasitical
plants, that ran from the ground all the
way up into their branches. Wherever
there was any possible place on the
trunk of n tree for one to stick, a huge
air plant was growing. There were bam-
boos without number, and hundreds Of
thick tropical plants that L had never
seen or heard Of before. The road wound
here and there through the %ravine, and
led us to an elevated spot on which there
was II small lake, its edges bordered with
such tropical plants as one usually sees
in pictures but seldom in reality. There
was a grotto cut out of the rock in the
mountain side, where the water gushed
through holes cut for il in the back,
dashed itself " a sloping bed of rocks,
and was caught in n basin Of stone at the
foot; and this basin was h~alf-coyered
with green leaves and growing water
plants. .
There were more lakes and more grot-
toes and natural cascades where the
water fell from considerable heights and
broke itself into foam in tearing over the
rocks. Near the shore of the largest lake
was a small cottage, with chairs and Ia
bles in It's single open room-nod doubt a
favorite resort for p%icnicking parties.
There were more high trees in that one
little spot than / ever saw gathered to-
gether before. 1t fairly makes the back
of my neck ache now TO think of trying
TO look up at them. And such vegeta-
ton everywhere Just such plants and
trees as you see in the pictures of tropi-
cal countries, and such as you generally
don't see when you visit those countries
in person. But here they were, all
gathered together in this botanical gar
den, the whole garden covering a space,
at a rough guess, Of n hundred acres. |
remember seeing a gaudy Autograph
once in an atlas in the public library in
Bermuda Of a scene in South America. "
The leaves were the deepest and brightest
greens, the trees were p~reternaturally
tall, the mountains were high, the foliage
was thick enough to cut with a knife,
and birds Of brilliant plummage sat in
the branches. l thought at the time
that that picture must have been made
by somebody who had never been in a
tropical country; but here was just such
a ~scene-colors, trees, shrubbery, birds,
and all. There was nothing lacking
Cor. New York Times.