There are not many deciduous trees in Imèrina, so the numerous orchards, chiefly of mango-trees, look fresh and green throughout the year. But the Cape lilac, which does cast its leaves, is beginning to put out its bright green fronds; the peach-trees are a mass of pink blossom, unrelieved as yet by any leaves, and the sòngosòngo (Euphorbia splendens), in the hedges is just beginning to show its brilliant scarlet or pale yellow bracts. Wild flowers are still scarce, but the lilac flowers of the sèvabé (Solanum auriculatum) bloom all through the year. The golden-orange panicles of the sèva (Buddleia madagascariensis), which has a sweetish scent, now appear. Nature is arousing from the inaction of the cold season, and the few trees now flowering give promise of the coming spring. And so, from year to year, every month brings some fresh interest in tree and flower, in bird and insect, in the employments of the people, and in the changing aspects of the sky by day and in the starry heavens by night.
Note.—I may add here that of late years, through foreign influence preceding and following the French occupation, many new trees have been introduced into Madagascar, which have materially altered the look of the country in some provinces, especially in the Bétsiléo district. Millions of trees, chiefly species of eucalyptus, have been planted, especially along the roadsides, as well as mimosa, blackwood and filào. The beautiful purple bracts of the bougainvillea, and the large brilliant scarlet ones of the poinsettia, now give a much brighter appearance to gardens and public places, since they have been extensively planted in the capital and other large towns, as well as zinnias, crotons and cannas.
[10] Of late years, since numbers of children attend Government schools as well as those of the various missions, a considerable improvement has taken place in children’s clothing. Knickerbockers and jackets are now the dress of hundreds of boys; but the native làmba is still largely used, and is almost always part of girls’ dress.
STARS
[11] Curiously enough, the Malagasy appear to have given names only to these two prominent clusters of stars. The Pleiades they call “Kòtokèli-miàdi-laona”—i.e. “Little boys fighting over the rice mortar”; while the three stars of Orion’s belt they call “Tèlo-no-ho-réfy”—i.e. “Three make a fathom.” They have no name for the first-magnitude stars, or for the planets, except for Venus, as a morning star—viz. “Fitàrikàndro”—i.e. “Leader of the day.”
CHAPTER X
AT THE FOREST SANATORIUM
BY the kind concern of two of the missionary societies working in Madagascar for the comfort and health of their representatives, who live in Imèrina, two sanatoriums have been provided for them away from the capital. One of these is at Ambàtovòry, about fifteen miles distant to the east, and close to a patch of old forest still left among the surrounding somewhat bare country; the other is at Ankèramadìnika, at about double that distance, and is built close to the edge of the upper belt of forest, that long line of woods which, as already mentioned, stretches for several hundred miles along the eastern side of Madagascar. Here, after a year’s strenuous work in college, or school, or church, or in literary labour, or in something of them all, it is a pleasant and healthful change to come for two or three weeks to the quiet and restful influences of the beautiful woods, with their wealth of vegetable life, and with much to interest in the animal life of bird and insect.
I ask my readers to accompany me then in a visit to Ankèramadìnika, and to wander with me in the forest and observe the many curious and interesting things which we shall find in our walks. The forest is here about seven or eight miles across, and from the verandah we can see over the woods to the lower plain of Ankay, and beyond this to the long line of blue mountains covered by the lower and broader forest belt. A wonderful sight this plain presents on a winter morning, when it is filled with a white sea of mist, out of which the forest and the hills rise like islands, and the feathery masses of cloud against their sides have exactly the effect of waves breaking against a shore.
It will be fitting here to say a few words about the flora of Madagascar, and here I may quote what my late friend, the Rev. R. Baron, remarked in a paper read before the Linnæan Society in 1888.[12] He says: