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Tropic Days by E. J. (Edmund James) Banfield
page 43 of 287 (14%)
the swamp pheasant or the blended voices of hundreds of nutmeg pigeons
mellowed by half a mile of still, warm air.

Nor may such unassuming vegetation as the grasses--at least a dozen
varieties--find place in an enumeration which appeals primarily on the
grounds of prominence, though it would not do to despise the soft and
pleasant carpet beneath the orderly row of Casuarinas which the tide
planted during the last big cyclone with gardener's art. The common name
for the trees--"she" (or "shea" oaks, as the late F. Manson Bailey
preferred)--mimics the sound of the wind among the branches, which the
slightest zephyr stirs and, the storm lashes into sea-like roar. The
bright green of the grasses sets off the dull green and bronze of the
steadfast harps of the beach. At certain seasons and in some lights, when
the sun is in the west, the minute scales at the joints of the slender,
pendulous branchlets shine like old gold, producing a theatrical effect
which, if not experienced before, startles and almost persuades to the
belief that the complaining trees have been decorated by one who "has
sought out many inventions." But the slant of the sun alters, the light
fades, leaving them sombre in hue and whispering more and more discreetly
as the night calm settles over the scene. Such communicable trees should
stand together, commenting on passing events, booming in unison with the
cyclone, and mimicking the tenderest tones of the idlest wind. During a
storm, when the big waves crash on the beach and the Casuarinas are
tormented, the tumult is bewildering; but however loud their plaint, very
few suffer, though growing in loose sand; for the roots are widespread
and, like the trunk and main branches, tough, while the branchlets stream
before the wind.

Close behind the screen of Casuarinas is a magnificent specimen of a
wide-spreading shrub, in form a squat dome, which commemorates the name
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