348 ANNUAL OP SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERT. 



"The elevation being 12,080 feet, I was above the limit of trees, and the 

 ground was covered with many kinds of small-flowered honeysuckles, bar- 

 berry, and white rose." Sir J. Hooker. 



TROPICAL SCENERY ON THE AMAZON. 



Mr. "Wallace, a recent traveller in South America, gives us the follow- 

 ing highly instructive and well- stated estimate of tropical vegetation. He 

 says : 



" There is grandeur and solemnity in the tropical forest, but little of 

 beauty or brilliancy of color. The hugh buttress trees, the fissured 

 trunks, the extraordinary air roots, the twisted and wrinkled climbers, 

 and the elegant palms, are what strike the attention and fill the mind with 

 admiration, and surprise, and awe. But all is gloomy and solemn, and 

 one feels a relief on again seeing the blue sky and feeling the scorching 

 rays of the sun. 



" It is 011 the roadside and on the rivers' banks that we see all the 

 beauty of the tropical vegetation. There we find a mass of bushes, and 

 shrubs and trees of every height, rising over one another, all exposed to 

 the bright light and the fresh air, and putting forth, within reach, their 

 flowers and fruit, which, in the forest, only grow far up on the topmost 

 branches. Bright flowers and green foliage combine their charms, and 

 climbers with their flowery festoons cover over the bare and decaying 

 stems. Yet, pick out the loveliest spots, where the most gorgeous flowers 

 of the tropics expand their glowing petals, and for every scene of this 

 kind we may find another at home of equal beauty, and with an equal 

 amount of brilliant color. 



" Look at a field of buttercups and daisies, a hillside covered with 

 gorse and broom, a mountain rich with purple heather, or a forest- 

 glade, azure with a carpet of wild hyacinths, and they will bear a compari- 

 son with any scene the tropics can produce. I have never seen any thing 

 more glorious than an old crab-tree in full blossom ; and the horse chest- 

 nut, lilac, and laburnum, will vie with the choicest tropical trees and 

 shrubs. In the tropical waters are no more beautiful plants than our 

 white and yellow water-lilies, our irises, and flowering rush ; for I can- 

 not consider the flower of the Victoria regia more beautiful than that of 

 the Nymphaa alba, though it may be larger ; nor is it so abundant an 

 ornament of the tropical waters as the latter is of ours. 



"But the question is not to be decided by a comparison of individual 

 plants, or the effects they may produce in the landscape, but on the fre- 

 quency with which they occur, and the proportion the brilliantly colored 

 bear to the inconspicuous plants. My friend Mr. R. Spruce, now investi- 

 gating the botany of the Amazon and Rio Negro, assures me that by far 

 the greater proportion of plants gathered by him have inconspicuous .green 

 or white flowers ; and with regard to the frequency of their occurrence, 

 it was not an uncommon thing for me to pass days travelling up the 



