TROPICAL AND TEMPERATE ZONE FORESTS. 135 



or at all events in the temperate zone; for the reader 

 will, we trust, doubtless clearly understand the vast differ- 

 ence which necessarily exists between the forest in the 

 temperate, and in the tropical zones both of which have 

 their own special points of grandeur and beauty; and 

 perhaps this is not a bad opportunity for saying a 

 few words upon the contrast exhibited between these 

 great regions of arborescent vegetation. 



If we go to elegance, delicacy, and beauty of foliage, 

 there can be no question that the tropical forest 

 must be held to stand unrivalled. We have no such 

 leaves in the temperate zone, for instance, as those of 

 the palm or the banana ; and for grace and beauty the 

 palm must be adjudged the first place as queen among 

 the trees of the earth. 



Then again we have nothing in the temperate zone 

 to compare to the giant lianas, and other creepers, 

 which bind the trees of the tropical forests together, 

 like strong cables: the honeysuckle and the ivy, though 

 beautiful in their way, make but a poor show when 

 compared with these marvellous creepers, many of 

 which at certain seasons are, as we have shown, 

 covered with masses of magnificent flowers, whose 

 aroma scents the whole surrounding atmosphere; our 

 flowering trees also, in the north, are few and far 

 between that is to say, all of them, of course, produce 

 flowers, but they are mostly inconspicuous ones of 

 green colour, that the unobservant man will probably 

 never notice at all: whereas the floral beauties of 

 some of the great flowering trees of tropical climes, 

 once seen, can never be forgotten. We might instance 

 the Bauhinias and Bombacese, * as conspicuous examples 



* One of the most common and best-known of these is the Red 



