THE VIRGIN FOREST 



these qualities in the tropics. On the contrary, they have to protect 

 themselves against the rays of the tropical sun even more effectually 

 than the older and more resistant leaves, and so we see that they 

 adopt the protective measures of the latter in an intensified form. 



Treub, the botanist of the botanical gardens of Buitenzorg in 

 Java, thought that in the tropics one ought not to say that "the 

 trees are bursting into leaf"; that it would be more fitting to say 

 that "the trees are pouring out their leaves." And it really does 

 look like this when the young leaves of a number of tropical trees 

 and shrubs are hanging in dense bunches from the tips of the twigs. 

 They are then still soft, and can be curled round the finger. A singular 

 spectacle is afforded, for example, by a great Mango-tree, whose long, 

 lanceolate leaves stand out like divergent rays all over the tree, so 

 that it seems to be clad in a mantle of green stars. From all parts 

 of this green mantle twigs emerge from which the young leaves are 

 hanging like brown rags; for even their colour serves to protect 

 the young leaves from the sun. They do not need to produce their 

 green chlorophyll immediately, as do our leaves, which are obliged 

 to make the most of the short summer, and must begin their work of 

 helping to build up the tree from the very first day of their unfolding. 



In many trees the young leaves put on the loveliest colours. 

 The young pink leaves of the Cashew-tree harmonize most delight- 

 fully with the bright, varnished green of the maturer foliage ; but 

 sometimes they display a vivid, burning red. In the highlands of 

 Ceylon, at a height of 6,000 feet and more, the tree-tops of the 

 virgin forest were ablaze with such glowing colours that I would 

 not at first believe that I was looking, not at flowers, but at foliage. 

 Every tree-top had reached a different stage in the development of 

 its foliage, so that one was red, another orange, and others were 

 yellow, brown, and green. In the clear air of the heights each tree- 

 top was sharply distinguished from its neighbours, so that under 

 the blue sky the mountains were covered with a variegated carpet 

 of indescribably splendid colours. 



Many readers will have wondered why so little is said of palms 

 in this description; they are, perhaps, accustomed to imagine the 

 tropical forest as full of palm-trees, and I have often seen imaginary 

 pictures of tropical forests which consisted entirely of these trees. 

 This idea, however, is erroneous, for the palms are lovers of the 

 sunlight, and prefer the grassy plains, the seashore, or the banks 



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