UNCLE IN ENGLAND. 7 



whose small, close-set leaves resist the intense 

 cold of high latitudes, or of stormy mountains ; 

 and tracing the gradual increase in the size as 

 well as in the number of native plants through 

 all the intermediate climates, she ended with the 

 great stems, gigantic leaves, and splendid flowers 

 of the torrid zone. 



" A similar change," she added, te may be 

 observed in those adjective races of plants which 

 depend upon others for support and protec- 

 tion. Instead of the dwarf mosses and lichens 

 which clothe the bark of trees in colder countries, 

 the luxuriant parasites between the tropics may 

 be almost said to animate their trunks. Deli- 

 cate flowers spring from the roots of the choco- 

 late and calabash trees; and amidst the abund- 

 ance of flowers and fruits, and the confusion of 

 parasites and climbing plants, the traveller is 

 at a loss to determine to what stem the leaves 

 and blossoms belong. Humboldt describes a 

 species of aristolochia, whose flowers are four 

 feet in circumference ; but Sir Stamford Raffles 

 discovered a flower belonging to a parasite plant 

 in the island of Sumatra, that was nearly ten 

 feet in circumference. He brought home an 

 exact model of it, which is now in the apart- 

 ments of the Horticultural Society, and which 

 your uncle told me he saw and measured when 

 he was last in London. It has five petals of a 

 deep red colour, and of a very solid fleshy sub.-* 



