Our curiosity to visit these gardens was
very great: we hoped to see there magnificent specimens of trees
and flowers from all parts of the world--but we were rather
disappointed. The gardens have been founded too recently, and none
of the large trees have yet attained their full growth; there is no
very great selection of flowers or plants; and to the few that are
there, not even tickets are affixed, to acquaint the visitor with
their names. The most interesting objects for us, were the monkey's
bread-tree, with its gourds weighing ten or twenty-five pounds, and
containing a number of kernels, which are eaten, not only by
monkeys, but also by men--the clove, camphor, and cocoa-tree, the
cinnamon and tea bush, etc. We also saw a very peculiar kind of
palm-tree: the lower portion of the trunk, to the height of two or
three feet, was brown and smooth, and shaped like a large tub or
vat; the stems that sprang from this were light green, and like the
lower part, very smooth, and at the same time shining, as if
varnished; they were not very high, and the crest of leaves, as is
the case with other palms, only unfolded itself at the top of the
tree.
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