272 TROPICAL LANDSCAPE. 



slopes those mountains have the vegetation of 

 tropical Asia; but as they are ascended, the vege- 

 tation of Europe makes its appearance ; and the pro- 

 gress has much resemblance to one from Italy to 

 Lapland, in forest, orchard, and every thing. 



But the genuine tropical landscape is a curious 

 sight to those who have been accustomed to nothing 

 save the seasons of England and their succession of 

 productions and phenomena. These productions 

 are tempered to great peculiarities of weather; many 

 months without a shower or any moisture except 

 the dew ; and then pelting rains of the utmost vio- 

 lence. One year of such weather would, if there 

 were no help to be obtained from any other quarter, 

 cause a famine in England, and go far towards con- 

 verting the entire country into a desert. No doubt 

 many parts of the tropical regions are deserts, and 

 some are deserts now which have traces of having 

 been once fertile. It is not so much, however, to 

 any alteration of the seasons that that is owing, as 

 to alterations in the earth itself, to the fact that the 

 lakes have been emptied, and the rivers have cut 

 their channels so deep that they no longer continue 

 to irrigate and fertilize the soil. 



There is protection against excess both of drought 

 and of moisture in the surfaces of most of the trop- 

 ical plants. Their epidermis, or external rind, is 

 very compact, and in general highly polished and 

 shining. Thus the light and heat of the sun are 

 reflected from it in the hot and dry season, so that 

 the internal parts are not excited to more than ordi- 

 nary action. Then the compactness renders the 

 evaporation far less than it is in the common plants 

 of Europe, with a very inferior degree of tem- 

 perature. In like manner, as the peculiarly smooth 

 and close epidermis prevents evaporation to parch- 

 ing in the dry season, it prevents evaporation to 

 chilling in the humid ; and so, notwithstanding that 

 intense action of heat and light which produces so 



