Hothouse flowers grow in rank profusion round every house,
and tea-roses, fuchsias, geraniums fifteen feet high, Nile lilies,
Chinese lantern plants, begonias, lantanas, hibiscus, passion-
flowers, Cape jasmine, the hoya, the tuberose, the beautiful but
overpoweringly sweet ginger plant, and a hundred others: while the
whole district is overrun with the Datura brugmansia (?) here an
arborescent shrub fourteen feet high, bearing seventy great trumpet-
shaped white blossoms at a time, which at night vie with those of
the night-blowing Cereus in filling the air with odours.
Pineapples and melons grow like weeds among the grass, and
everything that is good for food flourishes. Nothing can keep under
the redundancy of nature in Kona; everything is profuse, fervid,
passionate, vivified and pervaded by sunshine. The earth is
restless in her productiveness, and forces up her hothouse growth
perpetually, so that the miracle of Jonah's gourd is almost repeated
nightly. All decay is hurried out of sight, and through the glowing
year flowers blossom and fruits ripen; ferns are always uncurling
their young fronds and bananas unfolding their great shining leaves,
and spring blends her everlasting youth and promise with the
fulfilment and maturity of summer.
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