338 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 



and lialines alone, the trunks would be barely visi- 

 ble ; but this is not all. Up their rough circumfer- 

 ence creep vines and climbing-plants, clinging closely 

 and firmly by multitudinous rootlets, hung with broad 

 and pendulous leaves. Attached again to the vines 

 and lianes are groups and clusters of epiphytic and 

 parasitic plants, some like pine-apples, some large as 

 cabbages, some like huge callas ; and among them 

 ferns and tillandsias, scores of species, piled, plant 

 after plant, one above the other, in seeming confusion, 

 each striving for a foothold in its aerial world. Now 

 and then there will be a great spike of blossoms, crim- 

 son, scarlet, or pure white, at which a humming-bird 

 will dart, fluttering up and down, the whole scene 

 reminding one of those lines in " Evangeline," where 

 the vines — 



" Hung their ladder of ropes aloft, like the ladder of Jacob, 

 On whose pendulous stairs the angels, ascending, descending, 

 Were the swift humming-birds, that flitted from blossom to blos- 

 som." 



No sound broke the solemn stillness of this moun- 

 tain forest save the cooing of a distant wood-pigeon, 

 and nothing showed itself except an occasional -per- 

 drix, or mountain partridge, as it flitted like a ghost 

 across our path. Up and higher we ascended ; the 

 trees diminished in size, and there came to our ears 

 the murmur of falling water, which we could not see, 

 from the rankness of the vegetation. Balisicrs, or 

 wild plantains, with broad green leaves and spikes of 

 crimson and golden cups, now lined the trail, and 

 glorious tree-ferns, in majesty of beauty unsurpassed, 

 spread their leaves above them. 



We reached the stream, and found it warm — so 



