Its lovely guests with closing waves receiv’d,
And every beauty soft’ning, every grace
Flushing anew, a mellow lustre shed.”
Leaving them to enjoy their innocent amusement of bathing, I spent the remaining hour before dinner amongst the shady fruit-trees, blooming bowers, and serpentine gravel walks; where indeed I saw greater variety of European plants than I imagined were produced in a tropical climate, such as mint, fennel, sage, rosemary, golden-rod and jessamine, the sensitive plant, pomegranates, roses, figs, and even some grapes.—Of the pomegranate flowers, a specimen may be seen in plate, No XXIX. The figs are both within and without of a beautiful crimson colour; but the roses are rather pale. Here were some beautiful pine-apples and melons, which, though they are so generally known, I will nevertheless give some account of. The imperial fruit, called Anana or pine-apple grows in the centre of an elegant sea-green plant, on a stalk of the same hue, about eight inches in length, its leaves diverging near the surface of the earth, which are smooth, long, strong, pointed, and dentulated with hard prickles. The shape of this fruit is nearly oval, the size of a sugar-loaf, all over chequered, and of [[213]]a most beautiful orange or golden colour, being crowned with a sea-green tuft, of the same leaves as the mother plant, and which when put in the ground produces another pine-apple in the space of about eighteen months. The delicious taste and flavour of this fruit has in the space of half a century become so well known, that I have introduced it merely to notice its plenty in the country I write of; for so spontaneously indeed do the former grow in this climate, and of such different kinds, without any cultivation, that on many estates they serve as a common food for hogs.
The musk and water melons grow also plentifully in this country; the first is of a globular form, large, like the crown of a small hat, ribbed, buff colour, orange and green. The pulp is yellow, firm, sweet, and succulent; still it is eaten with sugar, but more frequently with black pepper and salt—the smell of this fruit is excellent.
The water-melon is of an oval or cylindrical shape, its colour is a bright polished green, and partly a very pale buff; the pulp of this fruit is a pink colour, and of a mellow watery substance; its taste is sweet, exceedingly cooling, and of a most agreeable flavour.
Both the above melons are of the cucumber kind, growing on rough stalks, with large leaves, that creep along the ground. It is remarkable that the water-melon, which may be freely eaten in all distempers without the least pernicious consequence, thrives best in very dry and sandy [[214]]places.—In the annexed plate may be seen the Anana or pine-apple, with the musk and water-melon, besides the seed from which this last is produced.
I sent about this period, to a Mr. Reygersman in Holland, a most elegant collection of Surinam butterflies, which are here caught in great abundance and variety, and by which alone some people make no small profit; but the very idea of pinning them alive to a sheet of paper, was sufficient to prevent me from becoming a fly-catcher:
“Lo! the poor beetle that we tread upon——
Feels a like pang, as when a giant falls.”