EQUATORIAL VEGETATION 



which the component parts exhibit in detail untold variety 

 and beauty." l 



To the student of nature the vegetation of the tropics will 

 ever be of surpassing interest, whether for the variety of 

 forms and structures which it presents, for the boundless 

 energy with which the life of plants is therein manifested, or 

 for the help which it gives us in our search after the laws 

 which have determined the production of such infinitely 

 varied organisms. When, for the first time, the traveller 

 wanders in these primeval forests, he can scarcely fail to 

 experience sensations of awe, akin to those excited by the 

 trackless ocean or the alpine snowfields. There is a vastness, 

 a solemnity, a gloom, a sense of solitude and of human 

 insignificance, which for a time overwhelm him ; and it is only 

 when the novelty of these feelings have passed away that he 

 is able to turn his attention to the separate constituents that 

 combine to produce these emotions, and examine the varied 

 and beautiful forms of life which, in inexhaustible profusion, 

 are spread around him. 



1 The Naturalist in Nicaragua, p. 56. 



