Absence of Flowers. 245 



it represents the general aspect of nature in the equatorial 

 (that is, the most tropical) parts of the tropical regions. How 

 is it, then, that the descriptions of travellers generally give a 

 very difterent idea ? and where, it may be asked, are the glori- 

 ous flowers that we know do exist in the tropics ? These 

 questions can be easily answered. The fine tropical flowering-' 

 plants cultivated in our hot-houses have been culled from the 

 most varied regions, and therefoi'e give a most erroneous idea 

 of their abundance in any one region. Many of them are very 

 rare, others extremely local, while a considerable number in- 

 habit the more arid regions of Africa and India, in which 

 tropical vegetation does not exhibit itself in its usual luxu- 

 riance. Fine and varied foliage, rather than gay flowers, is 

 more characteristic of those parts where tropical vegetation 

 attains its highest development, and in such districts each kind 

 of flower seldom lasts in pei*fection more than a few weeks, 

 or sometimes a few days. In every locality a lengthened resi- 

 dence will show an abundance of magnificent and gayly- 

 blossomed plants, but they have to be sought for, and are rare- 

 ly at any one time or place so abundant as to form a perceptible 

 feature in the landscape. But it has been the custom of 

 travellers to describe and group together all the fine plants 

 they have met with during a long journey, and thus produce 

 the effect of a gay and flower-painted landscape. They have 

 rarely studied and described individual scenes where vegeta- 

 tion was most luxuriant and beautiful, and fairly stated what 

 effect was produced in them by flowers. I have done so fre- 

 quently, and the result of these examinations has convinced 

 me that the bright colors of flowers have a much greater in- 

 fluence on the general aspect of nature in temperate than in 

 tropical climates. During twelve years spent amid the grand- 

 est troj^ical vegetation I have seen nothing comparable to the 

 effect produced on our landscapes by gorse, broom, heather, 

 wild hyacinths, hawthorn, purple orchises, and buttercups. 



The geological structure of this part of Celebes is interest- 

 ing. The limestone mountains, though of great extent, seem 

 to be entirely superficial, resting on a basis of basalt which in 

 some places forms low rounded hills between the more pr'ecip- 

 itous mountains. In the rocky beds of the streams basalt is 

 almost always found, and it is a step in this rock which form.s 



