Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1911-03-31

They seemed glad TO De OF assist
ance to us. especially when l
bought a cents worth of bananas,
q should explain that that means
six delicious figs. as one kind of
that fruit are called here, lest you
think our demand for a luncheon
very slight) and then the woman
seemed quite proud of her naked
baby which she introduced to Mrs.
Hale, who of course, smiled,
winked. bowed, cooed, etc., etc.,
while l watched the rain-flled
cutters of the rustic roof discharge
themselves into the roadside ditch.
At every turn in these valley
roads and paths there is a lovely
beauty and picturesqueness in
nature which is most charming
seemingly always similar in tree,
shrub and vine, yet a lover of
nature in forest and stream, in hill
and sky, in blossom and bird, never
tires Of it This is the season when
some of the forest trees, shed their
leaves gradually, even in the midst
of a new poisoning, so that old
leaves, new leaves and blossoms
too, can be seen growing on
branches almost side by side. Most
of the trees here are Towering, and
many of them really beautiful in
the wealth of coloring. Should be
pleased to take you to ride or walk
with us some day, over the Saddle
Of the range, and down the Santa
Cruz valley, up the valley of Diego
Martin to the Blue Basin, or up
along the side of the Gulf and
through the valleys filled with
cocoa estates to MaCqueripe Bay to
take dip in the Atlantic Ocean
or through the Botanical Gardens
where nature has done much, and
man little, to make the place lovely
and beautiful. We often say, as
we walk along the paths or sit be-
meath the overhanging, rustling
palms, from which a moments
walk will take us right into the
heart of the natural forest, prim-
eval tropical jungle, that man, in
his attempt tn improve on nature,
may often add symmetry and beauty
in many ways, but that the high
est inspiration can come alone
from nature when she is just as
God cast her from His infinite
hand.
Here in the Gardens we find
nearly every tree that is known to
grow in a tropical cline, not set
out with special regularity, but
springing up seemingly, just where
the seeds were scattered by the
balmy breezes or dropped from the
beak of some happy bird and the
paths wind in and out among them,
and the songs of bird and winds
among the foliage of tree and cling
ing vine are a multitude. More
than fifty varieties of palm are
found here, and for me to attempt
to describe any of them to you
would be almost to mock at nature.
A great variety also of the cedar
and cypress family with their ever
richest green foliage are seen at
every turn of the way, while the
great saman and ceiba and monkey
pot and eucalyptus and bay tree
and brazil-nut tower above and
spread their branches farjout, and
in the ravine, few rods away, are
the nutmegs, and the cofees, and
the oranges, and the lines, and the
mangoes, and the cloves, which
make their nearby presence known
to us as the fragrance comes to lis
on the wings of the whispering
breezes. We look in wonder anc
amaze at the strange banyan will
its many trunks extending from
ground to branch; the wonderful
evergreen tree, so called, which
although low i'll stature extends 1t
sweeping branches in great cir
Gle of over one hundred feet in cir
conference, while seemingly 1t
leaves never fade, and its thousand
of branches intercept and intergroN
and intertwine in a perfect maze c
vegetable life; and the rope ire
with mighty trunk and massiv
top of great strong branches an
numberless limbs, from which al
suspended, swaying and twistin
in the air in every conceivabl
: way, threads, lines, cords, rope