THE LIANAS 



tree-tops, on the edge of the forest, and in the thickets that they 

 deserve this comparison. In the interior of the forest their flowers 

 and leaves are barely visible. The only exceptions are the few species 

 which love the shade, as, for example, certain lianas of the Pandanus 

 and Arum families (Freycinetia, Pothos scandens), which I saw in 

 the forests of Western Ceylon, and which wrapped the tree-trunks 

 as though with closely-twined feather boas, while the closely- 

 packed, graceful, green, fan-like leaves were waving in all directions. 



Generally speaking, however, it is the stems of the lianas that 

 catch the eye. It is the stems that make the tropical forest resemble 

 a maze of scajffolding ; it is the stems that give the forest, in Haber- 

 landt's words, "a three-dimensional extension," whereas a European 

 wood is one-dimensional, growing only in one direction, from the 

 ground upwards. 



And since all over the forest the lianas hang from the boughs like 

 long ropes, there is something mechanical in its appearance. One 

 seems actually to feel the pull of these taut cables. It is as though a 

 giant had stretched these cords in order to turn the forest into a 

 monstrous loom. 



