Vv WOODS AND FIELDS 179 
The great tropical forests have a_ totally 
different character from ours. I reproduce 
here the plate from Kingsley’s At Last. The 
trees strike all travellers by their magnificence, 
the luxuriance of their vegetation, and their 
great variety. Our forests contain compara- 
tively few species, whereas in the tropics we 
are assured that it is far from common to see 
two of the same species near one another. 
But while in our forests the species are few, 
each tree has an independence and individu- 
ality of its own. In the tropics, on the con- 
trary, they are interlaced and interwoven, so 
as to form one mass of vegetation; many of 
the trunks are almost concealed by an under- 
growth of verdure, and intertwined by spiral 
stems of parasitic plants; from tree to tree 
hang an inextricable network of lianas, and it 
is often difficult to tell to which tree the 
fruits, flowers, and leaves really belong. The 
trunks run straight up to a great height with- 
out a branch, and then form a thick leafy 
canopy far overhead; a.canopy so dense that 
even the blaze of the cloudless blue sky is 
subdued, one might almost say into a weird 
