"In the first place, Singapore is so near the equator that every kind of tropical tree and plant can grow here in the open air. The mercury shows an average, all the year round, of eighty-five to ninety-five degrees in the shade; and there is hardly any difference between summer and winter. Consequently it is one of the best places, perhaps the best place, for making a handsome garden, and the enterprising proprietor has kept this fact in mind. Where he is sure the thermometer will never fall below seventy-one degrees, he can grow anything he pleases.
"Such a lot of tropical things you never saw, and hardly ever dreamed of. There were rows on rows of beautiful palms and bamboos, and other things that only grow in the hot regions; and there was a pond with an enormous Victoria regia—the great water-lily that makes ours seem almost like a microscopic object.
"There are said to be more than eighty varieties of the palm; and if there is not a sample of each of these varieties in this garden, I am greatly mistaken. The garden covers a great deal of ground, and has been made with much care and taste. The owner is very proud of it, and always pleased to have strangers go there and admire it. The keeper, and the men under his orders, are very civil; and evidently the owner has told them that if they are not polite to strangers they will be sent away, and people of better manners put in their places.
"The garden contains a collection of tropical animals, but it is not very large. There was an orang-outang, or gorilla, there, and it was wonderfully like a man in its shape and appearance. It was said to have come from Borneo; and, if so, it was not a gorilla, but an orang-outang, as the gorilla is a native of Africa, and not of the Eastern Archipelago.
MATERNAL CARE.
"We were much amused at the comical appearance of a couple of chimpanzees. They were mother and child, and the mother was gravely occupied in arranging the hair of the youngster. He stared at us with his great round eyes; but she did not look up at all, as she was too much engaged with making the young fellow look well. We had a fine opportunity to see the formation of the feet of this variety of monkey; they have thumbs on the hind feet as well as on the forward ones, and as you look at them you can easily understand the readiness with which these animals can climb trees and swing from the limbs.
"The chimpanzees are said to show a great deal of fondness for each other. There is a story that two of them were once kept in the same cage, and one happened to take sick and die. The other was so affected by grief at the loss of its companion, that it refused all food for more than a week, and was finally forced to take something down its throat when so weak that it could hardly stand. It recovered very slowly, and never seemed to forget the absence of its old friend.
"There is another garden at Singapore which is the property of the city; it contains more animals than the private one, and fewer trees. We went to it, and had a pleasant half-hour among the curiosities it contains. The garden is an excellent thing to show strangers what the tropics can produce in the way of animals and birds, and for this reason we were much interested in it, and sorry when the time came to leave.