30 THE WONDERS OF VEGETATION. 



at a distance white, deep yellow, bright scarlet, rose 

 colored, violet or purple, even sky blue. In the 

 marshy places rise in compact groups the large and 

 beautiful elliptical leaves of the heliconia, which are 

 sometimes eight or ten feet in height, and bear for an 

 ornament extraordinary flowers of deep red or flame 

 color. Enormous bromelias, with countless flowers, 

 hold huge trees in deadly embrace, till they die after 

 a long struggle and suddenly fall thundering to the 

 ground. Thousands of creeping plants, from the 

 smallest size to the thickness of a man's thigh, with a 

 hard and compact wood, twist around trees, rise to 

 their summit and there flower and bear their fruit 

 without ever being seen by human eye. Some of 

 these plants, like certain banisteria, have forms so 

 singular that we cannot behold them without aston- 

 ishment. Sometimes the trunk around which these 

 plants have twined themselves dies and falls away in 

 dust. Then the huge stems of the parasites, strongly 

 interlaced, are seen supporting each other, clearly 

 showing their frail mutual support. It would be 

 very difficult to present a faithful picture of these 

 forests ; for it is not within the resources of art to 

 represent them as they are." 



There is in the forests of the New World a har- 

 mony perfectly in accord with the phenomena pre- 

 sented to the view as all is grand, imposing and 

 majestic ; the songs of the birds and the cries of the 

 different animals also have something savage and 

 melancholy in their utterance. Brilliant and sus- 

 tained cadences, cheerful chirpings, lively and gay 



