THE VIRGIN FOREST 



on short aerial roots, it spreads out a great umbrella-screen of green 

 lace-like fronds As in the hill forests of Ceylon, so in the virgin 

 forest of Brazil, I was always struck with admiration before the 

 tree-ferns. When one stands beside a purling brook, in the forest of 

 Sao Paulo, or Nova Friburgo, or Therezopolis, it looks as though 

 some lady giant had left her parasol there while taking her morning 

 bath, and had forgotten it on her departure. In the woods of Tijuca, 

 above Rio de Janeiro, they grew in the moist ground beside the 

 road, and the bright green of their fronds brightened the dark 

 woodland landscape. Two species were frequent there; one with 

 fronds like those of a European fern, while the other had denser 

 foliage, and fronds which looked as though they had been built up 

 of willow-leaves. 



In the neighbourhood of Sao Paulo there is an estate on which 

 the tree-ferns form the undergrowth in a wood of Araucarias. Like 

 a green, perforated veil the great fronds lie waving at the foot of 

 the tall trees. While there are no conifers in the tropical regions, 

 the "Pinheiros" or Araucarias are characteristic of the landscape 

 of sub-tropical southern Brazil (Plate 17), and on the hills they 

 grow even above Sao Paulo, which is on the Tropic of Capricorn. 

 I first saw these fine trees at Petropolis, at an altitude of 2,500 feet. 

 When on my first morning in Petropolis I woke and opened the 

 window the aromatic scent of resin and pine-needles entered the 

 room, while outside, in the garden, the sun was lighting up the 

 rounded summits of the Araucarias and reddening their trunks. 

 The Araucarias are not unlike our pines, but they are more regular 

 in build, and the twigs of the crown bear thick bunches of needles 

 only at their extremities, so that the tree reminds one of a candela- 

 brum, and has a rather solemn appearance. Even in the forest the 

 Araucarias preserve their peculiar character. Since the crowns of 

 the trees are not all of the same height, each is plainly distinguished 

 from the rest, and if one looks down from a height on the wood 

 climbing the opposite slope, the crowns of the trees are seen as 

 flat discs of green, and the sea of tree-tops is like a great chessboard, 

 glowing in the evening sunlight with every imaginable tone of 

 green. A mist rises from the floor of the valley; it grows cooler; 

 and we go homeward through the dark, odorous wood, the friendly 

 lights of the house twinkling through the black tree-trunks. 



It is delightful to wander through the forest in north-eastern Brazil. 



85 



