136 VEGETATIVE POWERS OF NATURE. 



among many others. On the other hand some of the 

 flowering shrubs of temperate climates are the finest 

 of all as for instance the rhododendron and the gorse. 



Also, as instances of the wonderful vegetative power 

 of Nature, the exuberance of tropical growth is out of 

 all proportion great, when compared with the slower 

 growths of the temperate zone ; the giant grasses, such 

 as bamboos, some of them over a hundred feet high, 

 are striking instances of this. Then as regards the 

 arborescent vegetation itself, in the temperate zone 

 our underwood generally consists of but a single growth 

 of lesser trees or shrubs; whereas in the torrid zone, 

 as we have not failed to point out in our section on 

 the equatorial forest region, we often find tier above 

 tier of different kinds of trees, extending in several 

 distinct forests, from the giant trees of the highest 

 growth down to within a short distance of the ground, 

 which in its turn is often covered with a dense growth 

 of herbaceous vegetation and foliage plants, to which 

 in our dim climate, so far removed from the regions 

 of the sun, we can show nothing to compare. It is 

 therefore indisputable that in very many ways the 

 wonders of the vegetable kingdom are exhibited in a 

 much more striking degree in the torrid, than in the 

 temperate zones. 



And yet when all is said and done, we venture to 

 think that the great forest region of the temperate 

 zone can hold its own against any other upon the 

 face of the earth. 



In the first place as regards the size and value of 

 the timber, tree for tree, from a commercial point of 



Cotton Tree (Bombax Malibaricwri] of which we have given some 

 account in our first volume. 



