Flowers in the Guiana Forest. 
HE ‘spicy breezes” of the tropics are proverbial, and many 
travellers have written on the beautiful flowers and their per- 
fumes. According to the popular notion, these odours are perceptible 
at considerable distances from the coasts, and greet the weary mariner 
almost before he sights land. This, however, if not altogether 
untrue, is highly exaggerated. When there is a land breeze, it more 
generally brings with it a heavy stifling odour redolent of the man- 
grove swamp and decaying vegetation, no doubt recalling memories 
of the forest, but rarely pleasant, and, sometimes, even disagreeable. 
On the rivers, where a heavy mist hangs at night, perfumes are some- 
times wafted to considerable distances, but rarely can they be 
detected at sea, probably because there is always some motion in the 
air which disperses the vapour. 
The ordinary visitor, with exaggerated notions of the beauty of 
tropical flowers, expects to see them here, there, and everywhere, and 
is naturally disappointed when he finds so many trees and plants 
with, what he considers, no blossoms at all. Coming from meadows 
dotted with moon-daisies or golden with buttercups, he sees only a 
few inconspicuous weeds, with here and there a yellow rattle-bush 
(Crotalaria), or the blue Ruellia tuberosa. In the gardens, however, he 
can hardly fail to be struck by the size and beauty of the numerous 
species of Hibiscus, Convolvulus, and Bignonia, but these are not wild 
flowers. 
The true native plants are neither to be found in field nor garden 
in the cultivated districts. To see them he must paddle along the 
rivers and creeks, walk on the sand-reefs, and explore the savannahs; 
but, even here, he will be disappointed if he expects to see anything 
like a continuous stretch of colour such as gratifies the eye on an 
English down or mountain slope. The flowers in the tropics do not 
grow in great masses, like heather, furze, or broom, but one species 
here and another there, rarely in anything lke a clump, or even 
scattered in any considerable number. Then they do not all open at 
the same time, but some are earlier and some later, even in the same 
species. Again, few remain open for any lengthened period; some 
can only be seen by the early riser, as they close soon after sunrise, 
