NATURAL HISTORY OF COSTA RICA — RIDGWAY. 809 



or so hidden among the foliage that they only now and then at- 

 tract attention; and we never saw anywhere in Costa Rica an ex- 

 tensive display of bright colors at all comparable to the splendid 

 mass-effect of mountain laurel, rhododendrons, and azaleas on our 

 more southern Appalachian mountains, or the vast expanses of 

 golden yellow composite that, in late summer and early fall, glorify 

 the open country of our Middle West. Unquestionably the variety 

 in tropical flowers is far greater, and many are certainly more beau- 

 tiful or showy than any of ours; but usually one must search for 

 them or come on them by accident. In the cloud zone, from about 

 6,500 to over 9,000 feet above sea level, there are many lands of 

 flowering trees, shrubs, climbers, and parasitic or epiphytic plants, 

 but their flowers, while often bright colored or beautiful, are rarely 

 conspicuous at a distance. 7 



The one absolutely distinctive feature of the Tropics, especially 

 the more humid portions, is the vegetation. This is so different from 

 that of any portion of the United States that we have nothing com- 

 parable — merely a faint suggestion in the " hammocks " of southern 

 Florida. In the Naturalists' Voyage in the Beagle, Darwin remarks: 



When quietly walking along the shady pathways [at Bahia, Brazil], and ad- 

 miring each successive view I wished to find language to express my ideas. 

 Epithet after epithet was found too weak to convey to those who have not 

 visited the intertropical regions the sensation of delight which the mind 

 experiences. I have said that the plants in a hothouse fail to communicate 

 a just idea of the vegetation, yet I must recur to it. The land is one great wild, 

 untidy, luxuriant hothouse, made by nature for herself, but taken possession of 

 by man, who has studded it with gay houses and formal gardens. How great 

 would be the desire of every admirer of nature to behold, if such were possible, 

 the scenery of another planet ; yet to every person in Europe it may be truly 

 said that, at the distance of only a few degrees from his native soil, the glories 

 of another world are open to him. In my last walk I stopped again and again 

 to gaze on these beauties, and endeavored to fix in my mind forever an impres- 

 sion which at the time I knew sooner or later must fail. The form of the 

 orange tree, the coconut, the palm, the mango, the tree fern, the banana will 

 remain clear and separate ; but the thousand beauties which unite these into one 

 perfect scene must fade away ; yet they will leave, like a tale heard in childhood, 

 a picture full of indistinct, but most beautiful figures. 



And in his " Retrospect " that distinguished naturalist further says : 



When I say that the scenery of parts of Europe is probably superior to any- 

 thing which we beheld, I except, as a class by itself, that of the intertropical 

 regions. The two classes can not be compared together. As the force of im- 

 pressions generally depends on preconceived ideas, I may add that mine were 

 taken from the vivid descriptions in the Personal Narrative of Humboldt, which 

 far exceed in merit anything else I have read. Yet with these high-wrought 

 ideas my feelings were far from partaking of a tinge of disappointment on my 

 first and final landings on the shores of Brazil. 



7 On the volcano of Poas, however, there was a mistletoe which completely covered 

 certain trees with a nearly solid mantle of bright red flowers. 



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