THE COMING OF THE RAINS IN GUIANA. 657 



thousand flowers are wafted from the neighboring gardens, and 

 the buzz and hum of insect life show that other living things are 

 attracted by the efforts of the flowers. Yonder is a white con- 

 volvulus, its flowers showing up against the dark foliage like 

 little moons. It does not emit any perfume, for its size and color 

 alone make it conspicuous. Here is an avenue of fiddlewood 

 trees, the flowers of which can not be seen, but the almost over- 

 powering odor they emit is quite as effectual as the color of the 

 convolvulus. 



You would like to classify these odors. Some are very grate- 

 ful, others cloying. There is the jasmin type, which, when ex- 

 cessively strong, is sickly. Then comes the West Indian mignon- 

 ette, which is not unpleasant at a distance, but which is almost 

 nasty in a room. The most grateful to our sense of smell appears 

 to be an odor in which there is something spicy this never cloys. 

 On a damp evening all these come at intervals, now as light 

 zephyrs and anon in overpowering bursts of perfume. Then 

 there are odors too delicate for appreciation by our gross organs, 

 which nevertheless attract insects from long distances. As the 

 flowers open, the visitors appear, to linger round for an hour or 

 two perhaps in the morning and then vanish until the same time 

 next day. 



Why do particular species of butterflies and moths confine 

 themselves to one plant ? Our plague, the butterfly above men- 

 tioned, comes to lay its eggs on or near the AHstolochia, but on 

 no other plant. A day or two ago we found its larvae on some 

 seedlings about two inches high, and there is one plant which 

 vainly attempts to push out new shoots, for as soon as a green 

 leaf appears it is eaten. But the insect does not always lay its 

 eggs on the leaves or stalks of the plant, but rather chooses a rail- 

 ing of the gallery or a portion of the latticework, always, how- 

 ever, in the immediate neighborhood of the food plant. Is not 

 this the act of a reasoning being rather than hereditary instinct ? 



The effect of the rainfall on our niagnificent vegetation is 

 wonderful. What immense quantities of water ai^e stored in the 

 great herbaceous plants of the tropics the banana, maranta, 

 and the treelike papaw ! All these are softer- wooded than many 

 of the delicate plants of other climes which grow only to a few 

 inches above the ground. With such a wealth of light and moist- 

 ure, ever} thing rises toward the sun. Daisies and primroses would 

 be smothered ; there is no room for them except up in the trees 

 among the epiphytes. Your gardens, fields, and even woods are 

 but miniature representatives of ours only comparable to the 

 contents of a box of Dutch toys. Grasses often rise above our 

 heads, and the cousins of your Compositce, become tall shrubs. 

 There are no BanunculacecB, Primulacece, or Umbelliferfv , and the 



VOL. XLVIII. 47 



