A NATURALIST IN BRAZIL 



The leaves are a light green, and sit on the rising stems like twin- 

 pointed pennants (Fig. 5) . In some species the leaf is split all the 

 way down, in others only half-way down, and in some only the tip 

 of the leaf is incised; and the tips are sometimes rounded, sometimes 

 pointed and divergent. It is a pretty sight when one walks through 

 the forest and sees these graceful pennons waving all over the 

 ground; for even on the ground it is rare to see dense masses of 

 foliage. Any wood in which the tops of the trees meet overhead 

 suppresses the undergrowth unless this consists of plants which are 

 adapted to living in the shade. Such, for example, are the jungle 

 Bamboos, and the Nillu, a plant with a beautiful flower and a 

 pleasant fragrance, which grows in the highlands of Ceylon. There 

 the trees are less lofty and more sparsely clad with leaves than in 

 the lowlands, and so they are surrounded by a sea of such under- 

 growth. And Fraulein E. Snethlage, who has spent years exploring 

 the forests of the Amazon, states that in the timber forest it is possible 

 to travel in all directions. When the forest is impenetrable it is so 

 by reason of certain species of creeping and climbing plants, of 

 which I shall speak in the next chapter. 



The huge leaves of the Brazilian Arums are perhaps those which 

 give the most vivid impression of being not leaves but works of art. 

 In Europe only a small wild Arum, the Cuckoo-pint, is native, 

 with a whitish spathe enclosing a club-shaped spadix, which sub- 

 sequently bears red berries. In the Scherzeria Arum of Brazil, 

 however, the spathe is a brilliant red, while the club-shaped spadix 

 emerges from it like a twisted stalk of coral. Other species develop 

 their powers of coloration in the leaves. The great leaves of the 

 Caladiums, in particular, have the loveliest marblings and ornamental 

 markings in green, white, red, and other colours, and these leaves 

 hang perpendicularly from the stems, like the tapestries hung from 

 a balcony to decorate the street. These masterpieces of Nature are 

 like pieces of figured velvet. 



In the tropical forest, then, we have all imaginable colours, set 

 against the brown of the tree-trunks and the dark green of the 

 leaves, and besides these colours there are everywhere the flashing 

 reflections of the foliage. Bright green is the only colour lacking ; 

 when we do find it, as in the Cashew-tree and the Mangrove, we 

 feel that it is a refreshing change, although the green of these leathery, 

 glittering leaves is not like our Northern greens. Not even the 

 young leaves, which in a European wood are the tcnderest, the most 

 transparent and succulent things that plant life can produce, have 

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