Page:Journal of the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks.djvu/458

400 in our English gardens, but like all the rest most elegant in their fragrance. (6) Sundal malam (Polianthes tuberosa), our English tuberose; this flower is considerably smaller, as well as more mildly fragrant than ours in Europe. The Malay name signifies "intriguer of the night," from a rather pretty idea. The heat of the climate here allows few or no flowers to smell in the day; and this especially from its want of smell and modest white array, seems not at all desirous of admirers; but when night comes its fragrance is diffused around and attracts the attention as well as gains the admiration of every passer-by. (7) Bonga tanjong (Mimusops elengi) is shaped exactly like a star of seven or eight rays, about half an inch in diameter; it is of a yellowish colour, and like its fellows has a modest agreeable smell; but it is chiefly used to make a contrast with the mulatti in the wreaths which the ladies here wear in their hair, and this it does very prettily.

Besides these there are in private gardens many other sweet flowers, which are not in sufficient plenty to be brought to market, as Cape jasmine, several sorts of Arabian jasmine, though none so sweet as the common, etc. etc. They also make a mixture of several of these flowers and leaves of a plant called pandang (Pandanus), chopped small, with which they fill their hair and clothes, etc. But their great luxury is in strewing their beds full of this mixture and flowers; so that you sleep in the midst of perfumes, a luxury scarcely to be expressed or even conceived in Europe.

Before I leave the productions of this country I cannot help saying a word or two about spices, though in reality none but pepper is a native of the island of Java, and but little even of that. Of pepper, however, I may say that, large as the quantities of it are that are annually imported into Europe, little or none is used in this part of the Indies. Capsicum or cayenne pepper, as it is called in Europe, has almost totally supplied its place. As for cloves and nutmegs, the monopoly of the Dutch has made them too dear to be plentifully used by the Malays, who are otherwise very fond