i INTRODUCTION 27 



lianas that twines through its branches and 

 sends down great rope-like stems to the 

 ground. Climbing ferns and vanilla cling to 

 the trunks, and a thousand epiphytes perch 

 themselves on the branches. Amongst these 

 are large arums that send down long aerial 

 roots, tough and strong, and universally used 

 instead of cordage by the natives. Amongst 

 the undergrowth several small species of 

 palms, varying in height from two to fifteen 

 feet, are common ; and now and then magnif- 

 icent tree ferns send off their feathery crowns 

 twenty feet from the ground to delight the 

 sight by their graceful elegance. Great broad- 

 leaved heliconias, leathery melastomse, and 

 succulent-stemmed, lop-sided leaved and flesh- 

 coloured begonias are abundant, and typical of 

 tropical American forests ; but not less so are 

 the cecropia trees, with their white stems and 

 large palmated leaves standing up like great 

 candelabra. Sometimes the ground is carpeted 

 with large flowers, yellow, pink, or white, 

 that have fallen from some invisible tree-top 

 above ; or the air is filled with a delicious 

 perfume, the source of which one seeks around 



