"A far more enjoyable excursion than this was to the botanical gardens which are on the opposite bank of the river, about three miles from the Hoogly bridge. We went there in a carriage and had a delightful drive, not only on the road but through the garden. The garden contains nearly 300 acres, and has a front of a mile on the river; it was laid out a hundred years ago as an experimental garden, to ascertain what foreign plants would grow to advantage in India. This garden was the cause of the introduction of tea into India, and also of the cinchona-trees, from which quinine is made. "One of the finest banyan-trees in the world is in this garden; it is a hundred years old, and its trunk is fifty-one feet in circumference, while it has 170 roots that descend from the branches to the ground. It makes a whole grove by itself, and is a wonderful thing to look at and sit under. "There are avenues of mahogany-trees and palms, the latter in great variety, and there are groves and avenues of trees whose names are quite unknown to anybody in America except to botanists. There are flower-beds in great number, and there is a conservatory, 200 feet long, filled as full as it can be with all sorts of floral products. In some respects the garden is finer than the one at Kandy, Ceylon, while in others it is hardly equal to it. [Illustration: PARASITICAL VINES ON A TREE.] "Some of the trees are covered with parasitical vines that almost envelop the trunk, and it seems to have been the object of the founders of the garden to experiment with these plants in the hope of making them useful. They have done so in the case of the rattans and similar creeping vines, and in some parts of India the gathering and shipment of rattans form a considerable industry. Unfortunately the parasites are not now in bloom, or we might have seen the trees covered with red blossoms to the complete exclusion of their own. [Illustration: THE COTTON-TREE.] "The cotton-growing business in India owes a good deal to this garden, as it has helped the distribution of the plants, and made a great many experiments to learn the variety of cotton-tree best adapted to any particular soil. Most of the Indian cotton is grown on a bush, as in the United States, and has to be renewed every year from the seed; but there is one variety that takes the form of a tree, and grows two or three years. It has numerous branches, and when the pods are opened, and the white cotton is hanging out, the appearance of the tree is very pretty. Some of these trees produce a cotton with a yellowish hue, while others are snowy white. It is no wonder that people say 'white as cotton' when they want to make a comparison, as there is nothing of a purer white than the contents of a cotton boll when it is first opened.