204
THE FAR EAST.
means" Man of the Lake," grows the largest known1lower , which is often from three to four feet in diameter. '!rhe Fh[I~IPIJines ha>'e few, [if any, of the barren lava plai ns of Hawaii; none of the bare, desolalte shoJ'es of northern coasts; but from the great storehouse of natural treasures of Luzon, the largest and richest of these IJearls of the Pacific, to the bundreds of smaller gems, all resple.n dent in a vegetation which clothes not only the plains and the lowlands but t he mountw~ns <lJnd the seash0l1es
G l~ NERAL
V IEW OF lLQ l LO.
with a verdure of mwny hues and never-fading gloss, here the flo rist fi nds bis paradjse, and the botanist bis wonderlamd. Tbe staple food raised is rice, though in some localities maize holds thi. a good second. Potatoes, peas, and wheat are cultiv<IJted successfully on the highlands. So rapidly do crops grow fun d malttwe th, t it is a comm.01i1 sight to see three stages of growth existiug on the same plot of land, tIle planting, cultivati ng, and harvesting going on in altermttion accordingly as the wor k had been begun. The extensive coast li nes of the islands afilord mlbny goom luwbours, Mae
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