exaggeration, one of the wonders of the world,

A moment after passing the gate you are in twilight,--though the
sun may be blinding on the white road without. All about you is a
green gloaming, up through which you see immense trunks rising.
Follow the first path that slopes up on your left as you proceed,
if you wish to obtain the best general view of the place in the
shortest possible time. As you proceed, the garden on your right
deepens more and more into a sort of ravine;--on your left rises a
sort of foliage-shrouded cliff; and all this in a beautiful
crepuscular dimness, made by the foliage of great trees meeting
overhead. Palms rooted a hundred feet below you hold their heads
a hundred feet above you; yet they can barely reach the light....
Farther on the ravine widens to frame in two tiny lakes, dotted
with artificial islands, which are miniatures of Martinique,
Guadeloupe, and Dominica: these are covered with tropical plants,
many of which are total strangers even here: they are natives of
India, Senegambia, Algeria, and the most eastern East. Arbores.
cent ferps of unfammiliar elegance curve up from path-verge
lake-brink; and the great _arbre-du-voyageur_ outspreads its
colossal fan. Giant lianas droop down over the way in loops
and festoons; tapering green cords, which are creepers descending
to take root, hang everywhere; and parasites with stems thick as
cables coil about the trees like boas. Trunks shooting up out of
sight, into the green wilderness above, display no bark; you
cannot guess what sort of trees they are; they are so thickly
wrapped in creepers as to seem pillars of leaves. Between you
and the sky, where everything is fighting for sun, there is an
almost unbroken vault of leaves, a cloudy green confusion in
which nothing particular is distinguishable.