The bush and woods of small trees which are found surrounding the upper belt of forest do not show many flowers during the cold season of the year. Yet even during these cooler months—May to August—innumerable objects of interest present themselves to those who will use their eyes as they walk along the woodland paths. Among the few flowers that are to be seen, besides the ever-present orange spikes of the _Sèva_ (_Buddleia madagascariensis_), and the purple flowers of the _Sèvabé_ (_Solanum auriculatum_) are the bell-like reddish flowers of a species of _Kitchingia_, which are rather plentiful; and towards the end of August a number of small trees and bushes are showing clusters of handsome crimson flowers; while a purple trumpet-shaped flower is to be seen here and there. Not uncommon is a shrub with small red flowers, like honeysuckle, growing at the axils of the leaves and all along the stems. More rare is a good-sized bush, with large light green and glossy leaves, and with clusters of yellow fruits, much like large white currants. This shrub would be a handsome addition to a garden. Berries of various hues—black, red, orange and yellow—are fairly plentiful; and in many bushes and trees the lack of flowers is almost made up for by the brilliant scarlet, or crimson, or orange colours of the new leaves, and in others again by the bright orange or red of the fading leaves. [Sidenote: PALMS] There are few trees of any size left in the woods in the immediate vicinity of the sanatorium, or near the paths through them; they have all been cut down for the timber market in the capital, or for house-building in the nearer villages. But in the deep valleys not a mile distant there is still much virgin forest, and many trees of considerable height; and on the roadside in the Mandràka valley, along which the automobile road and then the railway have been constructed within the last ten or twelve years, both cut through dense forest, there are many lofty and isolated trees still left standing, as well as numbers of them in the adjoining woods. Like most tropical trees, these show the generally vertical habit of the branches; in the crowd of competitors there is no room for lateral expansion by wide-spreading branches; every tree presses upwards to get the light and heat of the sun. In many parts of the forest, the small palm, commonly called the “bamboo-palm” (_Mal. Fàri-hàzo_—_i.e._ “woody sugar-cane”), is very plentiful, giving a thoroughly tropical appearance to the vegetation. Few trees are more beautiful than this palm, with its ringed stem, three to four inches in diameter, and its graceful crown of light green pinnate leaves, through which the sunlight shines. Its usual height is twelve or fourteen feet, but it occasionally attains double that height, or more, in certain situations. A much larger, but far less common, palm is the _anìvona_, but this is because of its being cut down for the