A Classic Island.--Topographical Position.--Maldive
Islands.--Lands rising out of the Sea.--Size of
Ceylon.--Latitude and Longitude.--A Link of a Powerful
Chain.--Important British Station.--"Mountain of the Holy
Foot."--Remarkable Mountain View.--Queer
Speculations.--Insect Life in the Island.--Acknowledged Gem
of the Orient.--Wild Elephants.--In Olden
Times.--Far-Reaching Historic Connections.--Arboreal and
Floral Beauties.--Perennial Vegetation.--The Feathered
Tribe.
Ceylon, the Lanka Dwipe, "resplendent island," of the Hindus, the
fabled isle of the Arabian Nights, and appropriately called the "Pearl
of India" by the English, who are its present masters, is separated
from the southern extremity of the continent by the Gulf of Manaar.
Were it not that a shallow watercourse of about fifty miles in width
intervenes, the island would be a peninsula. As it is, a barrier to
navigation known as Adam's Bridge, consisting of several ledges of
parallel rocks, nearly forms a connection with the mainland. Aided by
coral growth and the sand deposit of the ceaseless current setting
into the Strait of Manaar from the long reach of the Coromandel coast,
this may in the course of time be consummated. The tendency is
certainly in that direction, notwithstanding a system of dredging
which has been adopted by the English government, enabling vessels
which do not draw over ten feet of water to pass through the strait,
and thus avoid the necessity of doubling the island at its southern
extremity. Ceylon,--the Serendib of the Arabs,--is the gem of the
Indian Ocean, an intimate acquaintance with which fully sustains the
delightful promise it suggests to the stranger who beholds it for the
first time as he approaches the low-lying, palm-lined shore. Indeed,
it might appropriately be called the Isle of Palms, so interminable is
the array of cocoanut-trees which fringe the beach.
Judging solely from its present appearance and its geographical
position, it would seem to have been a portion of the mainland at some
former period, though there are many able writers who do not accept
this idea, reminding us that animals, birds, insects, and reptiles
which are quite unknown on the continent of India exist in this
island. There are no hyenas, tigers, wolves, or foxes here, though
there are plenty of these creatures just across the Strait of Manaar.
As an argument this is not of so much importance, however, as might at
first appear, since there are so many well-known instances of a like
character. The dissimilitude of Sumatra and Java, separated by only a
narrow channel, occurs to us, as well as that of Madagascar, but
narrowly divided from the neighboring continent. So able a writer on
physical geography as Sir J. E. Tennent believes that Ceylon is not a
dismembered portion of India, but a distinct formation, perhaps part
of a continent which has long since disappeared. In this suggestive
opinion Professor Owen also agrees with him.
The Maldive Islands, situated five hundred miles west of Ceylon, are a
group of seventeen coral islets containing a vast number of cocoanut
palms, and are rich in varied tropical vegetation. They have a
population of thirty thousand Mohammedans, ruled by an hereditary
sultan, who pays yearly tribute to the present government of Ceylon in
recognition of his dependency.
Legend informs us that two thousand years and more before Christ,
multitudes of isles were attached to the kingdom of Lanka (Ceylon),
which were suddenly overwhelmed by the sea. At the time of the great
catastrophe, it is represented that the splendid capital city of
Sri-Lanka-Pura, which stood to the westward of any part of the present
island, was engulfed, and disappeared forever. The Portuguese, on
their arrival in Ceylon in the sixteenth century, found the natives
fully believing in the traditions of its former extent, and its
partial submersion. This is duly recorded by the Portuguese writers of
that period. The substance of this legend is also to be found in the
Mahawanso, or native chronicles of the island.
So far as the flora and fauna of Ceylon are concerned, it resembles
the islands of the Malay group lying far to the eastward, much more
than it does the land which is situated so near to it at the north.
Geologists tell us that the island has for ages past been slowly
rising from the ocean level, and we know that well-preserved marine
shells are found in masses at a considerable elevation, ten miles
inland, both in the north and the south of Ceylon, and especially in
the foot-hills of the central mountain, or Kandian range, as it is
called, near Ratnapura. When we pause to consider for a moment the
possible age of these marine deposits, preconceived and popular ideas
of the time which has passed since the creation of the world are
utterly nullified. That the process of rising above sea level has been
progressing for ages is undoubtedly true, as in the instance of Norway
and Sweden, where careful measurements have been recorded, from time
to time, during a period of three hundred years, clearly demonstrating
that the land of those countries is steadily rising, while the
adjacent sea subsides. In some other instances the process is directly
reversed, the land obviously, though slowly, sinking, and the ocean
rising. This is a well-known operation, not confined to any one
portion of the globe. At the ancient town of Pozzuoli, on the shore of
the Bay of Naples, there is a solid marble pavement once belonging to
a pagan temple, built between two and three thousand years ago. The
temple was doubtless originally founded on the dry land, but this
indestructible floor is between nine and ten feet below the level of
the sea at this writing.
Ceylon is peculiar in its shape, resembling a cone, the smaller end
nearest to the continent which lies so close to it. This northern
portion of the island is a flat, narrow peninsula with a sandy soil,
but which by proper management is made to yield certain crops fairly
well. The western and southern coasts are low and densely wooded,
having many small bays and picturesque indentations, while the eastern
side is characterized by a bold and precipitous shore, quite
inaccessible from the sea, yet affording one or two excellent harbors
and several indifferent ones. The important and much-praised port of
Trincomalee is on this side of the island, where several open
roadsteads are commercially available for coasting vessels, so built,
like most oriental water-craft, that they can be drawn up on the beach
in rough weather. The coast is blockaded on the northwest by
numberless rocks, shoals, and sandbanks, impeding navigation, though
the island can be circumnavigated, as already indicated, by means of
the Paumben Pass, between Ramisseram and the continent. The north and
northwest coasts are especially low and flat, undoubtedly formed by
ages of sand deposits brought down from the north by the ceaseless
currents and lodged upon coral formations as a foundation. In area,
Ceylon is more than three times the size of Massachusetts, containing
twenty-five thousand square miles. The circuit of the island by water
is calculated to be about seven hundred miles. In Pliny's time he made
the circumference four times that distance. The latest statistics give
it a population of three millions, which is a sparse occupancy for so
extensive a territory, and one whose natural resources are sufficient
for the support of that number of people many times multiplied. Taken
as a whole, the island is perhaps the most thinly inhabited spot in
the Orient, though it is the largest and most important of what are
known as the crown colonies of the British Empire. Its number of
people is annually on the increase, as shown by the English Colonial
Blue Book,--an indisputable evidence of material prosperity. The
extensive ruins of ancient cities existing in the interior show that
there must have been in the past at least thrice the present number of
people upon the island, while some authorities place the possible
aggregate much higher than we have named, basing their calculation
upon the extraordinary size and number of the "buried cities," one of
which is reputed to have contained three million inhabitants, and over
four hundred thousand organized fighting men, whose weapons were bows,
arrows, and spears.
For the sake of completeness, it may be mentioned that the
geographical situation of Ceylon is between the sixth and tenth
degrees of north latitude, Point de Galle, in the extreme south, being
six degrees from the equator, and Point Pedro, in the farthest north,
a trifle less than ten. Dondra Head is a few miles farther southward,
and actually forms the extreme point of the island in that direction,
but Point de Galle, so much better known, is generally named to
represent the position. In the olden time, the former was a more
popular resort than the latter, a fact which some grand ruins clearly
establish; indeed, Dondra was the site of the Singhalese capital
during a part of the seventh century. A substantial and costly
lighthouse has lately been erected here by the English government.
By turning for a moment to any good modern map, the reader will
greatly facilitate the ready understanding of these pages.
Lying thus just off the southern point of India, at the entrance of
the Bay of Bengal, Ceylon stands, as we have intimated, in the same
relation to it that Madagascar does to Africa, forming a link of the
powerful chain of fortified outposts which England has shrewdly
established to maintain an open route to her Indian possessions. This
cordon, beginning at Gibraltar, extends to Malta, Aden, Ceylon,
Penang, Singapore, and Hongkong, thus dominating the southern coast of
Asia, and insuring the maintenance of British power in the East. Of
those named, Ceylon is the most central British military garrison.
Colombo, the capital, is situated nine hundred miles from Bombay, six
hundred from Madras, fourteen hundred from Calcutta, and sixteen
hundred from Singapore. With all these places it has constant steam
communication. Sir Henry Ward, then governor of Ceylon, sent an entire
infantry regiment to Calcutta at one day's notice, when the outbreak
known as the Indian mutiny occurred in 1857. These troops were the
first reinforcement to arrive on the scene at that critical period.
Touching the matter of home connection, Colombo is nearly seven
thousand miles from England by way of the Suez Canal, which is the
most direct route. As we proceed with our story of Ceylon, the
relevance of these statistics will become more apparent.
The surface of the island is picturesquely diversified by hills,
valleys, and plains. Its highest mountain, Pidarutalagalla, exceeds
eight thousand feet, while its most famous one, Adam's Peak, rises a
little over seven thousand feet above sea level. This is a lonely
elevation, springing abruptly into a sharp cone from the bosom of the
low hills which surround it, and from out of a wilderness of tropical
jungle. Few mountains of its height require more persistent effort to
reach the apex. Serious and even fatal accidents have many times
occurred among the pilgrim hosts, who have been drawn hither from
great distances for the purpose of prostrating themselves before the
alleged footprint. The ascent from the Maskeliya side is much easier
than that known as the "Pilgrim's Path" from Ratnapura, but the latter
is considered to be the proper one by which the truly devout should
seek the holy spot. Upon its summit ceaseless prayers and praises have
ascended for thousands of years. Is it an instinct of man, one pauses
to ask, which leads him to ascend such a height that he may seem to
be a little nearer to the God he worships? Besides the daily visitors
in the month of April, crowds of pilgrims from thousands of miles away
in northern India, Persia, and Arabia come hither annually to bow down
before a crude indentation of the rocky summit. The natives have a
legend that Buddha ascended to Heaven from this mountain, but other
religionists substitute the name of Adam; hence the designation which
it bears. There is an irregular cavity in the rock supposed to have
been made by Buddha's or Adam's foot, whichever may best accord with
the pilgrim's faith. But surely the foot of nothing less than a human
giant or an elephant would be nearly so large as this misshapen,
so-called footprint. It is curious how far zealous fanatics will go in
the line of self-deception, and out of what flimsy material fictitious
legends can be constructed. Dreamy orientals ascend this mountain
solely for devotional purposes, but the western traveler comes up
hither with infinite labor to enjoy the grand view from such an
elevation, and to see the sun rise in all its glory. He comes also to
witness a remarkable natural phenomenon, which once seen is never
forgotten. As the sun rises in the east, there suddenly appears upon
the western sky the vast reflex of the peak, as clearly defined as
though a second and precisely similar mountain were actually there.
Through the shadow, which seems to have some peculiar telescopic
effect upon the atmosphere, one sees Colombo distinctly, though it is
nearly fifty miles away. As the sun rises higher, the great mysterious
shadow fades slowly away like a ghostly phantom, growing less and less
distinct, until presently the west is also suffused with the waking
and regal glow of the morning.
Then is spread out before the view a scene of inspiration, rich in
contrasting effects and remarkable for its variety of lovely tints.
One may search half a lifetime without discovering anything to equal
its combined charms. The mountain stretching east and west, the
verdant plains, the picturesque tea and coffee plantations, the groves
of oranges, palms, bananas, and other tropical fruits, are as distinct
to the view as though within an arrow's shot. What a charming picture
to frame and hang within one's memory.
According to the priests, four Buddhas have visited the peak. The
first was there B. C. 3001, the second B. C. 2099, the third B. C.
1014, and the fourth, Gautama, B. C. 577.
Adam's Peak is by actual measurement the fifth elevation in point of
altitude among a list of one hundred and fifty mountains varying from
three thousand to seven thousand feet in height. It is doubtful if the
existence of so well-defined and extensive a mountain range in this
equatorial island is generally realized. One would like to know what
could have been the primary and real inducement for selecting this
spot as a sanctuary. The Buddhists think that the miraculous
impression of Buddha's foot has made the place sacred; the Hindus
revere it as being marked by the foot of Siva; the Mohammedan
considers it holy as bearing the footprint of Adam; and so on. How
came Hindus, Buddhists, and Mohammedans alike to attribute special
sanctity to this particular mountain? Such unanimity of sentiment
among widely differing sects must have had its rise, it would seem, in
some legitimate cause, and not in the mere chance selection of a
shrine.
A late writer upon the subject of Adam's Peak refers to the fact that
in the Septuagint, the word "Serendib" is found in Genesis viii. 4,
instead of Ararat, as being the place where Noah's ark rested after
the deluge! Serendib, it should be remembered, is the Arabian name of
Ceylon. One thing is quite certain, Asiatics of all creeds join each
other in a profound veneration for this bold and striking mountain.
Marco Polo, the famous Venetian traveler who wrote seven centuries
ago, spoke of the peak as containing the tomb, not the footmark, of
Adam. The Mohammedans, ever ready with a poetical legend, still
declare that when Adam and Eve were driven out of Paradise, they were
sent to Ceylon to console them for their banishment.
In order that a story or legend should touch the credulity of, and
become current among, oriental people, there are two grand essentials:
it must be sufficiently marvelous and ridiculously extravagant.
The author recommends the ascent of Adam's Peak to any member of the
Alpine Club who is ambitious to achieve a laborious climb heavenward.
There are few mountains only seven thousand four hundred feet in
height which present such difficulties as this, when approached from
Ratnapura.
The huge iron chains which aid the pilgrims to ascend the almost
vertical path are relics of so great antiquity that in the legends of
Mohammedans they are associated with the name of Alexander the Great.
The marvel is, how even iron could so have withstood the wear of ages,
thus exposed to atmospheric influences.
The mountains of Ceylon cover about one sixth of its area, rising in
the centre of the middle province, and extending nearly across the
island from coast to coast. The southern portion is in all respects
the most attractive, though a thousand years ago the northern part of
the island was the most populous and the most highly civilized. At the
north, there are still to be seen the ruins of cities whose size and
riches were once marvelous. Unknown agencies, together with civil wars
and foreign invasions, have destroyed these ancient capitals and
turned the neighboring highly cultivated lands into a wilderness.
To-day it is the region south of the ancient Kingdom of Kandy--a
kingdom no more--which most invites the stranger, rendered beautiful
by an endless succession of musical streams, waterfalls, mirror-like
lakes, palm groves, and flowery labyrinths,--the very realization of a
tropical dream. This region, dense with forests of palms, rich in
fruit trees, gorgeous in flowers, is the paradise of fireflies;
phosphorescent clouds of these little fairy-like torch-bearers
illumine the night at all seasons, reveling beneath the shadow of
feathery bamboos and broad-leaved bread-fruit trees. Here they sport,
contrasting their pyrotechnic display with the emerald lamps of the
glow-worms. In the daytime, radiant, sun-loving butterflies on
gossamer wings fill the atmosphere with flashing prismatic hues, the
harlequin-like parrot and the royal-plumed peacock completing the
outdoor carnival of colors.
The great green-winged ornithoptera, prince of the butterfly tribe,
rivaling the humming-bird in size, is nearly as abundant as at
Singapore, a living gem, measuring six niches across the extended
wings,--the giant of its species. Enthusiastic naturalists give
fabulous sums for specimens of this beautiful creature, much to the
amazement of the simple natives, who have been familiar with it all
their lives. The appearance of this lovely insect tribe in Ceylon is
gorgeous, in their yellow satin, black velvet, and steel-blue costumes
of gossamer texture, daintily spotted with white, green, crimson, and
ruby red. These frail beauties are as various in form as in hues,
still a perfect harmony of order is always observed. At certain
seasons of the year and at uniform intervals, migration of myriads of
butterflies takes place in Ceylon, but whence they come in such
countless numbers, or whither they go, no one seems to know. When on
the wing, these delicate creatures make marvelous progress against the
northeast monsoon, though they are of such frail construction that one
would think the slightest puff of wind must dismember their bodies.
Where there are so many blossoms and odorous flowers, Nature did not
forget also to supply myriads of the delightful little humming-birds,
which are seen, with breasts and throats of gold and purple, stealing
their sweets all day long, yet leaving enough for the innumerable wild
honey bees, and to flavor the air with exquisite odors. Ceylon has
been called the happy hunting-ground of naturalists, for collectors
are overwhelmed by the number, beauty, and variety of specimens which
present themselves, and which are easily secured.
A resident told the author of a lady friend who was an enthusiastic
naturalist and skillful preserver of specimens, and who visited the
island solely to gather examples of this fairy-like creature. She was
absent from England five months, three of which were passed in the
neighborhood of and at Colombo, Point de Galle, and Kandy. Our
informant said that the lady not only added vastly to her own
priceless collection, but she realized from those she sold to others a
sufficient sum to pay the expense of her visit to Ceylon. Every one
might not expect to do this, but the person referred to was a
professional in her line of occupation, and produced finished,
artistic results.
It has been the author's privilege to visit nearly all parts of the
world, not omitting the principal islands in both hemispheres, north
and south of the equator. With this experience, he does not hesitate
to place Ceylon in the first rank for natural riches and
attractiveness, and, next to Malta, in the same relative position as
regards its far-reaching and interesting historical associations. In
the exuberance of its vegetation, the productiveness of its glorious
palms, the abundance of its luscious fruits,--including that seductive
apple of the East, the mangosteen,--and the fascinating beauty of its
variegated flora, it is not surpassed by any island or continent on
the globe. A spirit of romance is engendered by the very name of
Ceylon, the chosen field of oriental fable, recalling its mighty
ruins, its unique native gems, its tribes of peculiar people, its
mysterious jungles, its array of brilliantly colored birds, and its
huge wild animals inviting the spirited hunter to deeds of daring and
adventure. A simple statement of statistical facts will emphasize this
last reference. The printed records show that, during the five years
ending in 1862, sixteen hundred wild elephants were ensnared, and
sufficiently tamed to be exported to India. In accomplishing the
capture of these, about two hundred are believed to have been killed
by the bullets of the hunters, besides others which escaped while so
seriously wounded that they must have died in their nearly
inaccessible haunts. Since the date named, such wholesale slaughter
has been prohibited by government. Comparatively few are now exported
yearly, and the only market for them is India, if we except a limited
demand from European zoological gardens, and American circuses and
traveling menageries.
At one time, not many years ago, the English authorities paid a reward
for the killing of elephants. The fact is, they had become so numerous
and destructive, especially in the rice-fields at harvest time, that
it was absolutely necessary to reduce the number of the wild ones. A
reward of ten shillings was therefore offered and paid for each tail
brought to the official headquarters. These animals, at that time, had
long been undisturbed, and were consequently less shy; while now, on
the report of a gun, all the wild elephants within hearing, impelled
by an intelligence bought by experience, rush for the depths of the
jungle, which is quite inaccessible to human beings. They are mostly
magnificent and wary creatures. No white ones are ever seen here,
though they are so abundant in Siam. The elephants are measured, in
Ceylon, at the shoulders, and a full-grown male stands usually about
nine feet in height at this point, rather under than over. The largest
elephants on the island are said to haunt the country about the
ancient ruins of Pollanarua, where there are some almost impassable
forests. The fever-haunted jungles have no terrors for these huge
creatures, which seemingly enjoy entire immunity from all the ills
attendant upon such surroundings. In its native wilds, no one ever saw
an elephant ill from natural causes. When death threatens them from
old age or the wounds of the huntsmen, they retire and hide
themselves, to die.
The charms of this island were well known in past ages. It is no new
discovery of our day, as the earliest writers celebrated the pearls
and gems of "Taprobane," and ornaments composed of its precious stones
decked Asiatic queens of beauty twice ten hundred years ago. Ancient
thrones were beautified by its sparkling sapphires, and the products
of its spice-fields rendered fragrant the fires which burned upon the
altars of pagan gods. The Greeks called it the "land of the hyacinth
and the ruby." Primitive nomenclature is not only poetically
descriptive, but is nearly always appropriate.
The island is very ancient in its historical relations. Its most
famous capital is supposed to have been in its prime five or six
hundred years before the Christian era, while some of its crumbling
monuments belong to a much earlier age. It is confidently believed by
many students of history to be the Ophir of the Hebrews; and the fact
that it still abounds in rubies, sapphires, amethysts, garnets, and
other precious stones, seems, in a degree, to corroborate this
supposition. An intelligent estimate as to the aggregate value of the
gems exported from Ceylon during the long past places it at so
enormous a figure that we decline to give it in this connection,
though fully realizing that the yield has been going on
uninterruptedly for a period of two or three thousand years. But aside
from this very attractive feature, it is, as a whole, the most
beautiful island of the East, producing many other gems besides those
of a mineral nature. "It is truly impossible to exaggerate the natural
beauty of Ceylon," says the author of "The Light of Asia," and adds:
"The island is, in fact, one prodigious garden, where the forces of
nature almost oppress and tyrannize the mind, so strong and lavish is
the vegetation." Marco Polo, who visited it in the thirteenth century,
said that it was the choicest island of its size on the earth; and
though, in the dim light of such information as was obtainable in his
day, he made some grotesquely incorrect statements relating to the
country, he was most certainly right in this superlative praise. He
adds that the territory of Ceylon was much larger in former times than
in his day, a great part of it having crumbled away and sunk into the
sea. This is an important conclusion, with which our modern
geographers are very ready to agree, though conjecture only can say to
what extent it may have occurred.
As already mentioned, the arboreal and floral display is glorious
beyond expression, forming a very paradise for botanists. Nature
seems in this latitude to revel in blossoms of novel and fascinating
species. Moisture and heat seek here an outlet to expand their
fructifying powers. Situated in the path of the two monsoons, the
southwest from the Indian Ocean, and the northeast from the Bay of
Bengal, there is hardly a month of the year without more or less rain
in Ceylon; vegetation is therefore always green and leafage luxuriant.
In the jungle, large and brilliant flowers are seen blooming upon tall
trees, while the eye is attracted by others very sweet and tiny in the
prolific undergrowth, nestling among creepers and climbing ferns. In
fact, the flora is endless in variety and intoxicating in fragrance.
Perfume and bloom run riot everywhere. It would be vain to attempt an
enumeration of the myriad examples, but memory is quick to recall the
charming pitcher plant, the lotus,--its flower eight inches in
diameter,--the yellow jessamine, the gorgeous magnolia, with
innumerable orchids in their perfection of form and color, not
forgetting the orange-hued gloriosa, and the beautiful vine bearing
the wild passion-flower. There is also the large pearl-hued
convolvulus which blossoms only at night, known in Ceylon as "the moon
flower," and conspicuous through the dimness by its radiant whiteness.
Many of the orchids exhibit a most singular similitude to animals and
beautiful birds in their unspeakable and sweet variety. At first
sight, a collection of them strikes one like a bevy of gorgeous
butterflies and humming-birds, flitting among the green leaves. It
seems as if Nature had created them in one of her happiest and most
frolicsome moods,--"so true it is," says Macaulay, "that Nature has
caprices which Art cannot imitate." Occasionally the senses are
charmed by the fragrant, yellow-flowered champac, held sacred by the
Hindus, from the wood of which the small images of Buddha are carved
for the temples. Here, too, we have the odorous frangipane, the flower
which Columbus found in such abundance on first landing in Cuba. Was
it indigenous, one would like to know, in both of these tropical
islands so very far apart? It is a tall plant, with few branches
except at the top, but having fleshy shoots with a broad-spread,
single leaf. The sensitive plant, which is such a delicate house
ornament with us, fairly enamels the earth in this island, growing
wild from Adam's Peak to Point de Galle, multiplying its dainty,
bell-like pink blossoms, mingled with the delicate feathery acacia.
Growing so exposed, and in weed-like abundance, it is natural to
suppose that it would become hardened, as it were, to rough usage; but
it is not so, as it retains all its native properties, in exaggerated
form, if possible. Our puny little hothouse specimens are not more
delicate or sensitive to the human touch than is this Ceylon mimosa.
It is the most impressible of all known plants, and is appropriately
named. Curious experiments prove this. If a person will fix his eyes
upon a special branch and slowly approach it, the plant is seen
gradually to wilt and shrink within itself, as it were, before it is
touched by the observer's hand. It is endowed with an inexplicable
intelligence or instinct, and what appears to be a dread as regards
rude contact with human beings. A few years since, the author was at
Cereto, in the island of Cuba, where he was the guest of an English
physician who was also a coffee planter. While sitting with the family
on the broad piazza which formed the front of the bungalow, a thrifty
sensitive plant was recognized and made the subject of remark. The
doctor called his young daughter of eleven years from the house.
"Lena," said he, "go and kiss the mimosa."
The child did so, laughing gleefully, and came away. The plant gave no
token of shrinking from contact with the pretty child!
"Now," said our host, "will you touch the plant?"
Rising to do so, we approached it with one hand extended, and before
it had come fairly in contact, the nearest spray and leaves wilted
visibly.
"The plant knows the child," said the doctor, "but you are a
stranger."
It was a puzzling experience, which seemed to endow the mimosa with
human intelligence.
One brings away especially a vivid memory of the brilliant scarlet and
golden bloom which covers the flamboyer so densely as almost to hide
from view its foliage of velvet green. Only in far-away, mid-ocean
Hawaii does the traveler see this gorgeous tree so perfectly
developed.
The former superintendent of the Royal Botanical Gardens near Kandy,
whither we shall take the reader in due time, is a scientific
botanist, and an enthusiast in his profession. He tells us that he
classified nearly three thousand indigenous plants, which is double
the flora of Great Britain, and about one tenth of all the species in
the world yet described. Thirty of these are declared to be found only
upon this island. If correct, this is certainly a very remarkable
fact, and forms an additional incentive for exploration on the part of
naturalists.
Any reader of these pages who can conveniently visit Cambridge, Mass.,
should not fail to enjoy the unique and comprehensive collection of
specimens representing the flora of Ceylon, now in the Agassiz Museum.
The material is glass, although it seems to be wax, but so perfectly
has the work been done, under direction of Professor George L.
Goodale, of Harvard College, as to be indeed realistic. We have called
this collection unique, and it is absolutely so. Bostonians can find
no more charming local attraction with which to entertain appreciative
visitors from abroad than this in the department of botany at the
institution named.
There is a constant unvarying aspect of green pervading the scenery of
Ceylon, owing to the perennial nature of the vegetation. The trees do
not shed their leaves at any fixed period of the year. The ripe and
withered foliage drops off, but it is promptly replaced by new and
delicate leaves, whose exquisite hues when first expanding rival the
blossoms themselves in beauty of color. If fruit is plucked, a flower
quickly follows and another cluster ripens,--Nature is inexhaustible.
There is no winter interval or sleep for the vegetation, no period of
the sere and yellow leaf, as with us in the colder north. The fruits
and flowers are ever present, yet there is a certain resemblance to
spring and autumn, as we are accustomed to see them. The shrubs and
trees are decked more or less with young fresh leaves at all times,
while the ground is strewn with those in a state of decay which have
ripened and faded out of life. The latter with us are the harbingers
of winter, the former coming only with the opening spring. Thus it is
that we call it the reign of eternal summer, for all out-of-doors
seems like a conservatory of choice flowers and birds of dazzling
hues. Although these highly colored creatures of the feathered tribe,
like the butterflies, are almost innumerable, one is forced to admit
that there are few sweet songsters among them. Paroquets in mottled
green, practicing their dainty ways, present themselves in flocks,
lighting upon the nearest bushes and branches with a winning
fearlessness and confidence. They will slip quietly away if one
attempts to catch them, but when taken young they are easily
domesticated, accommodating themselves to human associations with the
utmost facility, and though they are left free to seek the woods and
jungle when they choose, they are sure to return voluntarily to the
cabins of the natives, to be fed and petted by human hands.
One variety of the green paroquet has a curious rose-colored ring
about its neck, like the turtle-dove, so delicate and uniform as to
seem almost artificial. The natives call it the love-bird. The
youthful Singhalese women, like those of Japan, take great pains in
the arrangement of their ebon-black hair. It was a unique and very
pretty sight observed one day in the native district of Colombo, when
a pair of live paroquets' heads, forming the apex to a native woman's
abundant coil, were seen coquettishly twisting and turning hither and
thither. The little beauties were quite content, perched up there amid
their mistress' wealth of tresses. They were hardly confined, though
their bodies were laid cosily beneath the braids as though resting in
their native nest. What a field this tropical isle would have been for
Audubon!
One often sees hovering about the gardens and bungalows a little bird
as large as an English sparrow, called the Ceylon bird of paradise,
but which does not deserve that name. It has a black head, a
neutral-tinted body, and a long tail, five times the length of its
body, consisting of pure white feathers. Its only marked peculiarity,
so far as is apparent, consists in its singular and disproportionate
tail. It has a little fretful, discordant twitter, but no connected
notes. The Singhalese name for the bird escapes us at this writing.
Ornithologists make out a list of over three hundred distinct species
of birds in Ceylon, among which the largest variety is found in the
parrot family, very nearly equaled by the wading and aquatic tribes.