Mountain Plants. 



127 



ferns, sometimes fifty feet high, contributes greatly to the 

 general effect, since of all the forms of tropical vegetation 

 they are certainly the most striking and beautiful. Some of 

 the deep ravines which have been cleared of large timber are 

 full of them from top to bottom ; and where the road crosses 

 one of these valleys, 

 the view of their feath- 

 ery crowns, in varied 

 positions above and 

 below the eye, offers 

 a spectacle of pictur- 

 esque beauty never to 

 be forgotten. The 

 splendid foliage of the 

 broad-leaved Musacese 

 and the Zinziberaceae, 

 with their curious and 

 brilliant flowers, and 

 the elegant and varied 

 forms of plants allied 

 to Begonia and Melas- 

 toma, continually at- 

 tract the attention in 

 this region. Filling 

 up the spaces between 

 the trees and larger 

 plants, on every trunk 

 and sturajj and branch, 

 are hosts of orchids, 

 ferns, and lycopods, 

 which wave and hang 

 and intertwine in ever- 

 varying complexity. 

 At about 5000 feet 

 I first saw horsetails 



(Equisetum), very like our own species. At 6000 feet raspber- 

 ries abound, and thence to the summit of the mountain there 

 are three species of eatable Rubus. At 7000 feet cypresses 

 appear, and the forest-trees become reduced in size, and more 

 covered with mosses and lichens. From this point upward 



PRIMULA IMPERIALIS. 



