228 SAGACITY AND MORALITY OF PLANTS. 



There was not a leaf on the tree which was not 

 100 feet over our heads. For size of spurs and 

 wealth of parasites the tree was almost as remarkable 

 as the Ceibae. But the curiosity of the tree was a 

 Carat Palm, which had started between its very roots ; 

 had run its straight and slender stem up parallel 

 with the bole of its companion, and had then pierced 

 through the head of the tree, and all its wilderness 

 of lianes, till it spread its huge flat crown of fans 

 among the highest branches more than lOO feet 

 aloft. The contrast between the two forms of vegeta- 

 tion, each so grand, but as utterly different in every 

 line as they are in botanical affinities, and yet both 

 living together in such close embrace, was very note- 

 worthy — a good example of the rule that while 

 competition is most severe between forms most 

 closely allied, forms extremely wide apart may not 

 compete at all, because each needs something which 

 the other does not." 



In our English climate our intensest conditions 

 of vegetable life are not to be compared with its 

 luxuriant growth in the tropics, especially where 

 humidity is favourable. Burmeister has left it on 

 record that the contemplation of a Brazilian forest 

 produced on him a painful impression, on account of 

 the vegetation displaying a spirit of restless selfishness, 

 eager emulation, and craftiness. H. W. Bates (77^^ 

 Naturalist on the River Amazons) has the following 

 remarks : " In these tropical forests each plant and 



