kinds of bamboos, tufted growing palms, rattan canes (_Calami_),
_Dracaenae,_ plantains, screw-pines, (_Pandani_, and such genera of
tropical monocotyledonous plants. All are evergreens of most vivid
hue, some of which, having slender trailing stems, form magnificent
masses; others twine round one another, and present impenetrable
hillocks of green foliage; whilst still others shoot out broad long
wavy leaves from tufted roots; and a fourth class is supported by
aerial roots, diverging on all sides and from all heights on the
stems, every branch of which is crowned with an enormous plume of
grass-like leaves.* [Since I left India, these improvements have been
still further carried out, and now (in the spring of 1853) I read of
five splendid _Victoria_ plants flowering at once, with _Euryale
ferox,_ white, blue, and red water-lilies, and white, yellow and
scarlet lotus, rendering the tanks gorgeous, sunk as their waters are
in frames of green grass, ornamented with clumps of _Nipa fruticans_
and _Phoenix paludosa._]

The great _Amherstia_ tree had been nearly killed by injudicious
treatment, and the baking of the soil above its roots. This defect
was remedied by sinking bamboo pipes four feet and a half in the
earth, and watering through them--a plan first recommended by Major
M`Farlane of Tavoy. Some fine _Orchideae_ were in flower in the,
gardens, but few of them fruit; and those _Dendrobiums_ which bear
axillary viviparous buds never do. Some of the orchids appear to be
spread by birds amongst the trees; but the different species of
_Vanda_ are increasing so fast, that there seems no doubt that this
tribe of air-plants grows freely from seed in a wild state, though we
generally fail to rear them in England.

The great Banyan tree (_Ficus Indica_) is still the pride and