246 TROPICAL NATURE 



might have been multiplied many times over by the introduc- 

 tion of articles whose names would be known only to those 

 interested in special arts or sciences ; but imperfect as it is, it 

 will serve to afford a notion of the value of this vast treasure- 

 house, which is as yet but very partially explored. 



The Climbing Plants of the Equatorial Forests 

 Next to the trees themselves the most conspicuous and 

 remarkable feature of the tropical forests is the profusion of 

 woody creepers and climbers that everywhere meet the eye. 

 They twist around the slenderer stems, they drop down 

 pendent from the branches, they stretch tightly from tree 

 to tree, they hang looped in huge festoons from bough to 

 bough, they twist in great serpentine coils or lie in entangled 

 masses on the ground. Some are slender, smooth, and root- 

 like ; others are rugged or knotted ; often they are twined 

 together into veritable cables ; some are flat like ribands, 

 others are curiously waved and indented. Where they spring 

 from or how they grow is at first a complete puzzle. They 

 pass overhead from tree to tree, they stretch in tight cordage 

 like the rigging of a ship from the top of one- tree to the base 

 of another, and the upper regions of the forest often seem 

 full of them without our being able to detect any earth- 

 growing stem from which they arise. The conclusion is at 

 length forced upon us that these woody climbers must possess 

 the two qualities of very long life and almost indefinite longi- 

 tudinal growth, for by these suppositions alone can we explain 

 their characteristic features. The growth of climbers, even 

 more than all other plants, is upward towards the light. In 

 the shade of the forest they rarely or never flower, and seldom 

 even produce foliage, but when they have reached the summit 

 of the tree that supports them, they expand under the genial 

 influence of light and air, and often cover their foster-parent 

 with blossoms not its own. Here, as a rule, the climber's 

 growth would cease ; but the time comes when the supporting 

 tree rots and falls, and the creeper comes with it in torn and 

 tangled masses to the ground. But though its foster-parent 

 is dead it has itself received no permanent injury, but shoots 

 out again till it finds a fresh support, mounts another tree, 

 and again puts forth its leaves and flowers. In time the old 



