n EQUATORIAL VEGETATION 253 



parts of the world might occupy a volume ; but the preceding 

 sketch will serve to give an idea of how important a part is 

 filled by this noble family of plants, whether we regard them 

 as a portion of the beautiful vegetation of the tropics, or in 

 relation to the manners and customs, the lives and the well- 

 being, of the indigenous inhabitants. 



Ferns 



The type of plants which, next to palms, most attracts 

 attention in the equatorial zone is perhaps that of the 

 ferns, which here display themselves in vast profusion and 

 variety. They grow abundantly on rocks and on decaying 

 trees ; they clothe the sides of ravines and the margins of 

 streams ; they climb up the trees and over bushes ; they form 

 tufts and hanging festoons among the highest branches. 

 Some are as small as mosses, others have huge fronds eight or 

 ten feet long, while in mountainous districts the most elegant 

 of the group, the tree-ferns, bear their graceful crowns on 

 slender stems twenty to thirty, or even fifty feet high. It is 

 this immense variety rather than any special features that 

 characterises the fern -vegetation of the tropics. We have 

 here almost every conceivable modification of size, form of. 

 fronds, position of spores, and habit of growth, in plants that 

 still remain unmistakably ferns. Many climb over shrubs 

 and bushes in a most elegant manner ; others cling closely 

 to the bark of trees like ivy. The great birds'- nest fern 

 (Platycerium) attaches its shell-like fronds high up on the 

 trunks of lofty trees. Many small terrestrial species have 

 digitate, or ovate, or ivy -shaped, or even whorled fronds, 

 resembling at first sight those of some herbaceous flowering 

 plants. Their numbers may be judged from the fact that in 

 the vicinity of Tarrapoto, in Peru, Dr. Spruce gathered two 

 hundred and fifty species of ferns, while the single volcanic 

 mountains of Pangerango in Java (ten thousand feet high) is 

 said to have produced three hundred species. 



Ginger-worts and wild Bananas 



These plants, forming tlie families Zingiberaceae and 

 Musacese of botanists, are very conspicuous ornaments of the 

 equatorial forests, on account of their large size, fine foliage, 



