SCARCITY OF FLOWERS. 61 



uniform climate of the equatorial zone the mass of 

 vegetation is greater and more varied than in any other 

 part of the globe, but in the great virgin forests them- 

 selves flowers are rarely seen. After describing the 

 forests of the Lower Amazon, Mr. Bates asks : " But 

 where were the flowers ? To our great disappointment 

 we saw none, or only such as were insignificant in appear- 

 ance. Orchids are rare in the dense forests of the 

 lowlands, and I believe it is now tolerably well ascer- 

 tained that the majority of the forest-trees in equatorial 

 Brazil have small and inconspicuous flowers." 1 My 

 friend Dr. Richard Spruce assured me that by far the 

 greater part of the plants gathered by him in equatorial 

 America had inconspicuous green or white flowers. 

 My own observations in the Aru Islands for six months, 

 and in Borneo for more than a year, while living almost 

 wholly in the forests, are quite in accordance with this 

 view. Conspicuous masses of showy flowers are so rare, 

 that weeks and months may be passed without observing 

 a single flowering plant worthy of special admiration. 

 Occasionally some tree or shrub will be seen covered 

 with magnificent yellow, or crimson, or purple flowers, 

 but it is usually an oasis of colour in a desert of 

 verdure, and therefore hardly affects the general aspect 

 of the vegetation. The equatorial forest is too gloomy 

 for flowers, or generally even for much foliage, except of 

 ferns and other shade-loving plants ; and were it not 

 that the forests are broken up by rivers and streams, 

 by mountain ranges, by precipitous rocks and by deep 

 ravines, there would be far fewer flowers than there are. 

 Some of the great forest-trees have showy blossoms, 



1 The Naturalist on the River Amazon*, 2nd edit. p. 38. 



