While the flame-tree--few and confined to the beaches--flashes into
bloom--an improvident blaze of colour, without a single atoning green
leaf--the umbrella-tree charms for several months with a combination of
graceful foliage and a unique corollary of singular flowers.
From the centre of whorls of shapely glossy leaves radiate simple
racemes, 2 feet long, as thickly set with studs of dense heads of red
flowers as Aaron's rod with its magical buds. Crowned with several
crowns of varying numbers of rays, rarely as few as four, frequently
seven and nine and occasionally as many as twelve, each tree is a
distillery of nectar of crystal purity and inviting flavour. On every
ray there may be eighty red studs, each composed of twelve compact
flowers, and every flower drips limpid sweetness. For months this
unexcised distillation never ceases. For all the birds and dainty
butterflies and sober bees there is free abundance, and every puff of
wind scatters the surplusage with spendthrift profusion. Sparkling in
the sunbeams, dazzling white, red, orange, green, violet, the swelling
drops tremble from the red studs and fall in fragrant splashes as the
wanton wind brushes past or eager birds hastily alight on the swaying
rays.
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