24 PARA. Cuap., II. 
together by sipds ; the woody flexible stems of climbing and creeping 
trees, whose foliage is far away above, mingled with that of the taller 
independent trees. 
" =o = eS Some were twisted 
UR ~ Varo SU YAY, sin strands like 
(@ (7 ae F&F SA SK. cables, others had 
Pe NN IPR ¢ thick stems con- 
an J fakes = . torted in every 
> variety. of shape, 
entwining snake-like round the tree trunks, or 
forming gigantic loops and coils among the larger 
branches ; others, again, were of zigzag shape, or - 
indented like the steps of a staircase, sweeping from 
the ground to a giddy height. 
It interested me much afterwards to find that 
these climbing trees do not form any particular 
family or genus. There is no order of plants whose 
especial habit is to climb, but species of many and 
the most diverse families, the bulk of whose members 
are not climbers, seem to have been driven by 
f circumstances to adopt this habit. The orders 
Lac (oe / Leguminose, Guttiferee, Bignoniaceee, Moracer, 
=. and others, furnish the greater number. There is 
f . %) even a climbing genus of palms (Desmoncus), the 
Loe 4/'\' species of which are called in the Tupi language, 
AE As # Jacitara. These have slender, thickly-spined, and 

flexuous stems, which twine about the taller trees 
from one to the other, and grow to an incredible 
WA length. The leaves, which have the ordinary pin- 
A ae SN \ nate shape characteristic of the family, are emitted 
4@ from the stems at long intervals, instead of being 
> 
collected into a dense crown, and have at their tips 
y a number of long recurved spines. These struc- 
tures are excellent contrivances to enable the trees 
to secure themselves by in climbing, but they are a 
great nuisance to the traveller, for they sometimes 
\ hang over the pathway, and catch the hat or clothes, 
Y dragging off the one or tearing the other as he passes. 
'%} The number and variety of climbing trees in the 
» ' Amazons forest are interesting, taken in connection 
with the fact of the very general tendency of the 
animals also to become climbers. 
All the Amazonian, and in fact all South American, 
monkeys are climbers. There is no group answering 
to the baboons of the Old World, which live on the 
Climbing Palm ground. The Gallinaceous birds of the country, 
(Desmoncus). —_ the representatives of the fowls and pheasants of 
Asia and Africa, are all adapted by the position of the toes to perch 
on trees, and it is only on trees at a great height that they are to be 
seen. A genus of Plantigrade Carnivora allied to the bears (Cercoleptes), 


