Two happy years in Ceylon . y a much more circuitous route, and easiergradient, right up to Nanu-Oya, which is only five miles from NuwaraEliya, and 5,600 feet above the sea, a considerable rise in a run of 130miles from Colombo. Nuwara Eliya itself is 6,222 feet above the now the admirably engineered road by which we travelled is com-paratively forsaken. The whole route was beautiful, and to me a delightful noveltywas the luxuriance of the fragrant datura with its large white trumpet-shaped blossoms, each 10 or 12 inches in length, of which we thinkso much if we see a dozen on a greenh
Two happy years in Ceylon . y a much more circuitous route, and easiergradient, right up to Nanu-Oya, which is only five miles from NuwaraEliya, and 5,600 feet above the sea, a considerable rise in a run of 130miles from Colombo. Nuwara Eliya itself is 6,222 feet above the now the admirably engineered road by which we travelled is com-paratively forsaken. The whole route was beautiful, and to me a delightful noveltywas the luxuriance of the fragrant datura with its large white trumpet-shaped blossoms, each 10 or 12 inches in length, of which we thinkso much if we see a dozen on a greenhouse shrub. Here therewere great masses of it growing as freely as our own yellow broom,and 12 or 15 feet in height, Colonists call it the fever-plant, believingthat it produces fever, and so object to its growth near houses, orkeep it closely trimmed as a garden hedge. What it does produce isa dangerous drug, which occasionally figures in cases of various instances robbers have induced the family cook, or some. a rt ? hi to mt^ TO THE HILLS 129 other person having access to the kitchen, to drop a few pills madeof datura-juice into the soup or coffee, and sometimes, to maksikker, into every course, so that no one can escape scot-free. All along the river the vegetation is a dream of beauty. Tallcocoa, areca, and beautiful kitool palms tower above a rich under-growth of broad-leaved plantains, ferns, and gay caladiums, or theblue-green of the handsome castor-oil plant, • while in some reaches,the gigantic plumes of the ever-graceful bamboo overhang the perhaps we pass a stretch of vividly green paddy-fields, dividedby low terraces of red soil, following every natural curve of the land ;so that is never a stiff straight line such as bounds our British all this, with the reflections in the still river, are only the fore-ground to a panorama of beautiful hills. At Gampola a carriage was waiting to take us up-country, but bysome mistake no coolie
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectsrilank, bookyear1901
