BESIDES flowers growing on the ground, there are many shrubs and small trees now in blossom, although some are by no means confined in floral display to the warm and rainy season. Along the hedges in some localities is a small bush, with clusters of purple leguminous flowers, called famàmo (Mundulea suberosa); branches of these shrubs are sometimes placed in a pool or stream, so as to stupefy, and thus easily obtain, any fish present in the water. Very conspicuous are the bright yellow flowers of the tainakòho (Cassia lævigata), and the tsiàfakòmby (Cæsalpinia sepiaria), and the orange-yellow spikes of the sèva (Buddleia madagascariensis). More showy and handsome still perhaps are the abundant large yellow flowers of the prickly pear, which is so largely used for hedges and for the defences of the old towns and villages. The strong and sharp spines, from an inch to an inch and a half long, are the usual native substitute for pins. A species of Hibiscus (Hibiscus diversifolius) is not uncommon, with yellow flowers, which have deep red in the centre; yellow seems indeed the most common colour in the flora of Imèrina. At this time of the year also three or four species of aloe come into flower. The larger of these, called vàhona (Aloe macroclada) by the Malagasy, is much used for planting as a hedge, from its fleshy leaves being armed with sharp prickles; its tall flower spike shoots up very rapidly to a height of four or six feet. Another and smaller one, called sahòndra (Aloe capitata), has its flowers branching at the top of the stalk something like a candelabra. The numerous flowers attract, as they expand, swarms of bees. Another plant, like an aloe in appearance, called tarètra (Fourcroya gigantea) by the natives, has long leaves, with a sharp spine at the ends only; and its flower-stalk shoots up like a small mast to a height of twenty feet, with widely spreading branchlets and an immense number of light coloured flowers. Strong fibre used as thread is obtained from the leaves, the name of the plant being indeed that used for “thread.” The tall flower-stalks of these aloes and agaves form quite a noticeable feature in the Imèrina landscape in the early summer. In the orchards, soon after the mango has finished flowering, we may see the curious whitish flowers of the rose-apple, a sort of ball of long stamens, showing conspicuously among the foliage.
WATER-PRODUCING INSECTS
It is well known by those who live in Madagascar that there are, at certain seasons of the year, a number of insects found on trees which produce a constant dropping of water. Happening one day to be standing under a peach-tree in our garden from which water was dropping, I found that there were clusters of insects on some of the smaller branches. In each cluster there were about twenty to thirty insects, and these were partly covered with froth, from which the water came. The insects producing this appeared at first sight to be small beetles, about half-an-inch long, black in colour, with golden-yellow markings on the head and thorax, while on the wing-cases there was a chequer of minute spots of yellow on the black ground. After observing a single insect for a few seconds, I noticed that the tail was quite flexible and moved sideways, and was constantly protruded and then withdrawn a little, and it was evident that these little creatures were the larval form of a species of beetle. The sap of the tree is extracted in such quantities as to maintain their bodies in a state of saturated humidity. The activity of the larvæ seems to increase as the heat of the day progresses, and to diminish again towards evening. But the object of this abstraction of fluid from the tree, and the purpose it serves, is still a subject needing investigation. I have observed these insects on other trees—mangoes, acacia, zàhana, and others; they appear indeed to be very common, and the ground underneath the branches where they cluster is covered with small patches soaked with water. A French naturalist, M. Goudot, described an insect apparently of the same kind as that found in Imèrina as the larva of a species of Cercopis, and nearly related to the cicada of Europe. The quantity of water produced from a tree at Tamatave seems to have been much greater than that observed in the interior, and resembling a small rain-shower; probably this was due to the greater heat of the coast. M. Goudot says that the perfect insect attains a length of an inch and a half, and that these also emit small drops of clear and limpid water.
Towards the beginning of December the earlier crop of rice comes into ear; and should the rains fall as usual during November, the remaining portions of the great rice-plain will be all planted out with the later crop, the whole of the level and its branching valleys presenting an unbroken expanse of green. Of this, the early rice shows distinctly as a darker shade of colour, although it will soon begin to turn yellow, as the grain ripens under the steady heat and the plentiful rainfall. Perhaps this is the time when Bétsimitàtatra is seen in its most attractive and beautiful aspect, for every part of it is covered with rice in some stage or other of growth and cultivation.
DAYS AND NIGHTS
To anyone coming for the first time into a tropical country from England, the comparative uniformity in the length of the days and nights throughout the year seems very strange. In Imèrina there is only about two hours’ difference in the length of the longest day, about Christmas, and the shortest day, early in July. It is dark at about seven o’clock on the first of January, and at about six o’clock on the first of July. Thus we have no long evenings, which are such a delight in the summer months in England; but, on the other hand, we escape the long nights and the short gloomy days of the English winter. We lose also the long twilights of the temperate zone, although I have never seen the almost instantaneous darkness following sunset which one sometimes reads about. There is a twilight of from fifteen to twenty minutes’ duration in this part of Madagascar. While, therefore, we miss the much greater variety of the seasons in England, we have many compensations, especially in the very much larger proportion of bright sunny days, the clear skies, and the pure atmosphere of our Imèrina climate. Very seldom have we a wet morning in any part of the year; and the heat is not more oppressive than it is in hot summers in England, while in the cold season the sharp keen air is bracing and health-giving. We never see snow in Madagascar, but a thin film of ice is very occasionally seen on the slopes of the Ankàratra mountains in July and August.
Rocks near Ambàtovòry
This shows the remains of the original forest. Cattle are grazing with a boy in charge
THE HOURS
It may be interesting to notice at this point the numerous words used by the Malagasy to indicate the different times of the day, from morning to evening. Clocks and watches are comparatively a recent introduction into Madagascar, nor do the people ever seem to have contrived any kind of sun-dial, although, as will be seen, they did use something else as a kind of substitute for such a time-keeper. It should be remembered that the hours given (counting in European fashion) as equivalents for these native divisions of the night and the day are only approximations, and must be taken as the mean of the year, or, in other words, at about the time of equal day and night, towards the end of March or of September. They are as follows:—