Along the waterside is a handsome row of the country almond-tree, which grows in the moister regions of Bengal and Siam. This is the Terminalia catappa with large leaves and is not in the least like the almond proper.
The avenue of toddy-palms is deservedly famous, though these gardens cannot compete in grandeur with those of Peradeniya in Ceylon. In one part of the grounds (the Gardens cover 270 acres) are many screw-pines (Pandanus utilissimus), but best of all I liked the long avenue of stately Oreodoxa regia. At the head of this there is a white marble monument of singular beauty, called "Kyd's Monument." It is by the sculptor Banks, and takes the form of a Grecian urn with figures round it on a tall plinth surmounting a circular platform.
Avenue of Oreodoxa Palms, Botanical Gardens, Calcutta.
After sundown when all visitors had gone away, as the light of the afterglow bathed it in a soft effulgence, and the wide, long avenue of palms stretched away into mist, the lovely marble seemed to have found perfect setting. As the light waned again the jackals began calling and filled the air with strange melancholy.
CHAPTER VIII
MY FIRST SIGHT OF THE HIMALAYAS
When I changed at Siliguri on to the Darjeeling Himalaya Railway, the moon hung high overhead in the morning sky, and the mountains slowly appeared out of the warm rosy mists of the lower air. I was still crossing the lowlands, yellow reaches of paddy stubble dotted with small white storks, wide watercourses and tall clumps of graceful bamboos looking nearly as yellow as the dry paddy stalks.