SIPOS OR WILD VINES. 575 



l^otmd too'ether, and are ribbed to tlieir entire heio;ht. In 

 some places the furrows reach completely through them, and 

 appear like the narrow windows of a tower. The stems of 

 others again rise on the summit of numerous roots, like the 

 bulging-stemmed palm, apparently standing on a number of 

 legs at the height of a dozen feet or more from the ground. 

 Often the roots thus form archways sufficiently large for a 

 person to walk beneath. 



SIPOS OR WILD VINES. 



Circling round the stems of trees in innumerable coils, and 

 gi'asping them with a deadly embrace, grow in rich luxuriance 

 countless wild vines, well meritino- the name of murderino; 

 sipos. They hang in festoons from their boughs, and form an 

 intricate tracery of network from ti-ee to tree, — often of 

 sufficient strength to support the falling monarchs of the 

 forest when time has wrought decay among their roots. 



Here are seen tillandsias and bromeliacese, like the crowns 

 of huge pine-apples ; large climbing arums, with their dark 

 gi'een and arrow-head shaped leaves, forming fantastic and 

 graceful ornaments swinging in mid-air ; while huge-leaved 

 ferns and other parasites cling to the stems up to the very 

 highest branches. These are again covered by other creeping 

 plants ; and thus we see parasites on pai'asites, and on these 

 paj'asites again. As we gaze upwards, we see against the 

 clear blue sky the finely divided foliage, many of the largest 

 of the forest-trees havino- leaves as delicate as those of the 

 trembling mimosa : among them appear the huge palmate 

 leaves of the cecropias, and the oval glossy ones of the 

 clusias, countless others of intermediate forms adding to the 

 variety of its scener}', — the bright sunshine playing on the 



