286 



ZONES AND REGIONS 



[Pt. Ill, Sect. I 



beech-woods in early summer, whereas yellowish, brownish, grey, olive-like 

 tints compose a picture somewhat gloomy but one tinted with innumerable 

 shades. Here and there on the duller ground glows the bright patch of 

 the flowering crown of a tree. When I was approaching the coast of 

 Trinidad in winter, the flowering erythrinas resembled so many fires in 

 the dark forest. So, in Java, I could recognize the puspa-tree (Gordonia 

 Wallichii) at a great distance by its snow-white flowers. By the mere 

 tints of their foliage a native can recognize valuable trees in the richly 

 figured tapestry of the canopy of the forest. Thus, the cascarilleros of 



Fig. 131. Profile view of the tropical rain-forest near Blumenau, Brazil. The palm is 

 Euterpe edulis. From a photograph by H. Schenck. 



the Andes look for an elevated point from which they can fix the position 

 in the forest of the scattered quinine trees. 



Even the side view of the tropical rain-forest differs essentially from 

 that of a European forest ; it is not as with us bounded above by a nearly 

 level line, but is irregularly jagged, crested, and furrowed (Figs. 131, 132). 

 In a natural condition, for instance on the bank of water-courses, such side 

 views of the forest are so overhung with lianes and epiphytes that the 

 stems are quite invisible and even the crowns appear veiled. In an 

 artificial side view, due to a forest-clearing, the great diversity in the 

 tree-trunks, the irregular tangle of lianes, and the variety in the forms of 

 the foliaged crowns forcibly strike the eye (Fig. 130). 



