I : INTRODUCTION 27 
lianas that twines through its branches and 
‘sends down great rope-like stems to the 
ground. Climbing ferns and vanilla cling to 
the trunks, and a thousand epiphytes perch 
themselves on the branches. Amongst these 
are large arums that send down long aerial 
roots, tough and strong, and universally used 
instead of cordage by the natives. Amongst 
the undergrowth several small species of 
palms, varying in height from two to fifteen 
feet, are common; and now and then magnif- 
icent tree ferns send off their feathery crowns 
twenty feet from the ground to delight the 
sight by their graceful elegance. Great broad- 
leaved heliconias, leathery melastome, and 
succulent-stemmed, lop-sided leaved and flesh- 
coloured begonias are abundant, and typical of 
tropical American forests; but not less so are 
the cecropia trees, with their white stems and 
large palmated leaves standing up like great 
candelabra. Sometimes the ground is carpeted 
with large flowers, yellow, pink, or white, 
that have fallen from some invisible tree-top 
above; or the air is filled with a delicious 
perfume, the source of which one seeks around 
