The Whole Of Bombay Abounds With Landscapes
Which, If Not Equal To That From Chintapooglee Hill, Which I Have,
Vainly I Fear, Attempted To Describe, Boast Beauties Peculiarly Their
Own, The Distinguishing Feature Being The Palm-Tree.
It is impossible
to imagine the luxuriance and elegance of this truly regal family as
it grows in Bombay, each separate stage, from the first appearance
of the different species, tufting the earth with those stately crowns
which afterwards shoot up so grandly, being marked with beauty.
The
variety of the foliage of the coco-nut, the brab, and others,
the manner of their growth, differing according to the different
directions taken, and the exquisite grouping which continually occurs,
prevent the monotony which their profusion might otherwise create,
the general effect being, under all circumstances, absolutely perfect.
Though the principal, the palm is far from being the only tree, and
while frequently forming whole groves, it is as frequently blended
with two species of cypress, the peepul, mango, banian, wild cinnamon,
and several others.
In addition to the splendour of its wood and water, Bombay is
embellished by fragments of dark rock, which force themselves through
the soil, roughening the sides of the hills, and giving beauty to
the precipitous heights and shelving beach. Though the island is
comparatively small, extensively cultivated and thickly inhabited,
it possesses its wild and solitary places, its rains deeply seated
in thick forests, and its lonely hills covered with rock, and thinly
wooded by the eternal palm-tree; hills which, in consequence of
the broken nature of the ground, and their cavernous recesses, are
difficult of access.
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