ii EQUATORIAL VEGETATION 247 



tree rots entirely away and the creeper remains tangled on 

 the ground. Sometimes branches only fall and carry a por- 

 tion of the creeper tightly stretched to an adjoining tree ; at 

 other times the whole tree is arrested by a neighbour, to 

 which the creeper soon transfers itself in order to reach the 

 upper light. When by the fall of a branch the creepers are 

 left hanging in the air, they may be blown about by the 

 wind and catch hold of trees growing up beneath them, and 

 thus become festooned from one tree to another. When 

 these accidents and changes have been again and again 

 repeated the climber may have travelled very far from its 

 parent stem, and may have mounted to the tree tops and 

 descended again to the earth several times over. Only in 

 this way does it seem possible to explain the wonderfully 

 complex manner in which these climbing plants wander up 

 and down the forest as if guided by the strangest caprices, or 

 how they become so crossed and tangled together in the 

 wildest confusion. 



The variety in the length, thickness, strength, and tough- 

 ness of these climbers enables the natives of tropical countries 

 to put them to various uses. Almost every kind of cordage 

 is supplied by them. Some will stand in water without rot- 

 ting, and are used for cables, for lines to which are attached 

 fish -traps, and to bind and strengthen the wooden anchors 

 used generally in the East. Boats and even large sailing 

 vessels are built, whose planks are entirely fastened together 

 by this kind of cordage skilfully applied to internal ribs. For 

 the better kinds of houses, smooth and uniform varieties are 

 chosen, so that the beams and rafters can be bound together 

 with neatness, strength, and uniformity, as is especially observ- 

 able among the indigenes of the Amazonian forests. When 

 baskets of great strength are required special kinds of creepers 

 are used ; and to serve almost every purpose for which we 

 should need a rope or a chain, the tropical savage adopts some 

 one of the numerous forest-ropes which long experience has 

 shown to have qualities best adapted for it. Some are smooth 

 and supple ; some are tough and will bear twisting or tying; 

 some will last longest in salt water, others in fresh ; one is 

 uninjured by the heat and smoke of fires, while another is 

 bitter or otherwise prejudicial to insect enemies. 



