THE SPLENDOUR OF TROPICAL SCENERY. 33 



With respect to the special qualifications which Mr. 

 Darwin thinks most desirable in a traveller, he con- 

 siders that, " A traveller should be a botanist, for in 

 all views plants form the chief embellishment." * 



While absorbed in the close study of every species 

 of object of scientific interest, the Great Naturalist was 

 nevertheless profoundly impressed with the wild beauty 

 of creation, as seen by him throughout his journeys, 

 especially so with the splendour of tropical scenery and 

 vegetation. We shall therefore offer no apology for 

 reproducing one such picture of this kind, bequeathed 

 to posterity by Mr. Darwin in his Journals : 



" It must be remembered that within the tropics, the wild 

 luxuriance of Nature is not lost, even in the vicinity of large 

 cities ; for the natural vegetation of the hedges and hill-sides 

 overpowers in picturesque effect the artificial labour of man. " 

 "It is a hopeless attempt to paint the general effect." 

 "Learned naturalists describe these scenes of the tropics 

 by naming a multitude of objects. But who from seeing a 

 plant in a herbarium can imagine the appearance when 

 growing in its native soil? Who from seeing choice plants 

 in a hot-house can magnify some into the dimensions of 

 forest trees, and crowd others into an entangled jungle? 

 Who, when examining in the cabinet of the entomologist 

 the gay exotic butterflies and singular cicadas, will associate 

 with these lifeless objects the ceaseless harsh music of the 

 latter, and the lazy flight of the former the sure accom- 

 paniments of the still glowing noon-day of the tropics? It 

 is when the sun has attained its greatest height that such 

 scenes should be viewed : then the dense splendid foliage of 

 the mango hides the ground with its darkest shade, whilst 

 the upper branches are rendered, from the profusion of light, 

 of the most brilliant green." 



* Journal of Researches, etc., p. 603. 

 VOL. I. 3 



