SCARCITY OF FLOWERS. 63 



that twines through its branches and sends down great 

 rope- like stems to the ground. Climbing ferns and 

 vanilla cling to the trunks, and a thousand epiphytes 

 perch themselves on the branches. Amongst these are 

 large arums that send down long aerial roots, tough and 

 strong, and universally used instead of cordage by the 

 natives. Amongst the undergrowth several small species 

 of palms, varying in height from two to fifteen feet, are 

 common ; and now and then magnificent tree ferns 

 sending off their feathery crowns twenty feet from the 

 ground delight the sight by their graceful elegance. 

 Great broad-leaved heliconias, leathery melastomse, and 

 succulent-stemmed, lop-sided leaved and flesh-coloured 

 begonias are abundant, and typical of tropical American 

 forests ; but not less so are the cecropia trees, with their 

 white stems and large palmated leaves standing up like 

 great candelabra. Sometimes the ground is carpeted 

 with large flowers, yellow, pink, or white, that have 

 fallen from some invisible tree-top above ; or the air is 

 filled with a delicious perfume, the source of which one 

 seeks around in vain, for the flowers that cause it are 

 far overhead out of sight, lost in the great overshadow- 

 ing crown of verdure." 



Although, as has been shown elsewhere, it may be 

 doubted whether light directly produces floral colour, 

 there can be no doubt that it is essential to the growth 

 of vegetation and to the full development of foliage and 

 of flowers. In the forests all trees, and shrubs, and 

 creepers struggle upwards to the light, there to expand 

 their blossoms and ripen their fruit. Hence, perhaps, 

 the abundance of climbers which make use of their more 

 sturdy companions to reach this necessary of vegetable 



