A NATURALIST IN BRAZIL 



but cover whole trees as with flame, or droop in clusters of blossom 

 from the lianas. I have already spoken of the splendour of the flower- 

 ing trees in the virgin forest, and the glorious red-flowered Mulunga 

 acacia in the wilderness. It is only natural that the gardeners should 

 make the most of the native flowering trees, and should also import 

 the handsomest species from other tropical countries. 



One of the most dazzling products of Nature is the flowering 

 "Flame Acacia," the Flamboyant of Madagascar, which may be 

 seen everywhere in Brazil and India, and even in Egypt. This 

 majestic tree is beautiful enough even before it blossoms, for its 

 spreading branches form a wide, shady umbel, which the large 

 pinnate leaves cover with a green, lacelike veil. It then loses its 

 leaves (Plate 3), but only to assume a greater splendour — in north- 

 eastern Brazil — about Christmas. The whole great umbel decks 

 itself with large orange-red flowers, whose five gracefully-formed 

 petals shine as though varnished. You can imagine what a blaze 

 of colour meets the eye when the street runs down a whole 

 avenue of such trees ! In the sunlight the tree-tops literally seem 

 on fire. 



There are many tropical trees which at their flowering season 

 transform themselves into huge nosegays of glowing, and often fra- 

 grant, blossom, and others in which, as in the Jambo, the flowers 

 break out of the trunk and branches, which look almost as if they 

 were illumined from within. But where trees are planted which do 

 not flower, or have perhaps just finished flowering, one may still 

 introduce colour into them by twining flowering lianas round them, 

 or by allowing Orchids or Bromelias to grow upon their trunks and 

 boughs. The tropical gardener has an incomparable choice, and can 

 make his garden a thing of miraculous beauty, which surprises one 

 each month with fresh loveliness. 



In view of the predominance of woody growth in the tropics, it 

 is natural that the glorious colours of the tropical garden should 

 be displayed, more especially by the trees and shrubs and creepers. 

 But even the shady walks may be adorned with colour, for it is here 

 that the Orchids are most at home. For them, too, shady arbours 

 are built, within which they unfold their blooms on stumps of trees. 

 Flower-beds, which in our gardens are responsible for most of the 

 colour, do not play so prominent a part in tropical gardens. Still 

 less, near the Equator, must one expect to find the lush green lawns 

 without whose emerald beauty no European garden would seem 

 complete. 



132 



