64 PARA. Chap. II. 



nature is refreshed ; but heaps of flower-petals and 

 fallen leaves are seen under the trees. Towards evening 

 life revives again, and the ringing uproar is resumed 

 from bush and tree. The following morning the sun 

 again rises in a cloudless sky, and so the cycle is com- 

 pleted ; spring, summer, and autumn, as it were, in 

 one tropical day. The days are more or less like this 

 throughout the year in this country. A little difference 

 exists between the dry and wet seasons ; but generally, 

 the dry season, which lasts from July to December, is 

 varied with showers, and the wet, from January to June, 

 with sunny days. It results from this, that the peri- 

 odical phenomena of plants and animals do not take 

 place at about the same time in all species, or in the 

 individuals of any given species, as they do in temperate 

 countries. Of course there is no hybernation ; nor, as 

 the dry season is not excessive, is there any aestivation 

 as in some tropical countries. Plants do not flower or 

 shed their leaves, nor do birds moult, pair, or breed simul- 

 taneously. In Europe, a woodland scene has its spring, 

 its summer, its autumnal, and its winter aspects. In the 

 equatorial forests the aspect is the same or nearly so 

 every day in the year : budding, flowering, fruiting, and 

 leaf shedding are always going on in one species or 

 other. The activity of birds and insects proceeds with- 

 out inten^uption, each species having its own separate 

 times ; the colonies of wasps, for instance, do not die off 

 annually, leaving only the queens, as in cold climates ; 

 but the succession of generations and colonies goes on in- 

 cessantly. It is never either spring, summer, or autumn, 

 but each day is a combination of all three. With the 



