general estimation, and a vague idea is formed that
whatever is pre-eminently beautiful must come from the
hottest parts- of the earth. But the fact is quite the
contrary. Rhododendrons and azaleas are plants of temperate
regions, the grandest lilies are from temperate
Japan, and a large proportion of our most showy flowering
plants are natives of the Himalayas, of the Cape, of
the United States, of Chili, or of China and Japan, all
temperate regions. True, there are a great number of
grand and gorgeous flowers in the tropics, but the proportion
they bear to the mass of the vegetation is exceedingly
small; so that what appears an anomaly is
nevertheless a fact, and the effect of flowers on the
general aspect of nature is far less in the equatorial
than in the temperate regions of the earth.
CHAP T ER XXXIY.
NEW GUINEA.— DOREY.
(m a r c h to JULY 1858.)
AFTER my return from Gilolo to Ternate, in March
1858, I made arrangements for my long-wished-for
voyage to the mainland of Hew Guinea, where I anticipated
that my collections would surpass those which I had
formed at the Aru Islands. The poverty of Ternate in
articles used by Europeans was shown, by my searching in
vain through all the stores for such common things as
flour, metal spoons, wide-mouthed phials, beeswax, a penknife,
and a stone or metal pestle and mortar. I took with
me four servants: my head man Ali, and a Ternate lad
named Jumaat (Friday), to shoot; Lahagi, a steady middle-
aged man, to cut timber and assist me in insect-collecting;
and Loisa, a Javanese cook. As I knew I should have to
build a house at Dorey, where I was going, I took with
me eighty cadjans, or waterproof mats, made of pandanus
leaves, to cover over my baggage on first landing, and
to help to roof my house afterwards.