386 



ZONES AND REGIONS 



[Pt. Ill, Sect. I 



beech-woods in early summer, whereas yellowish, brownish, grey, oHve-Hke 

 tints compose a picture somewhat gloomy but one tinted with innumerable 

 shades. Here and there on the duller ground glows the bright patch of 

 the flowering crown of a tree. When I was approaching the coast of 

 Trinidad in winter, the flowering erythrinas resembled so many fires in 

 the dark forest. So, in Java, I could recognize the puspa-tree (Gordonia 

 Wallichii) at a great distance by its snow-white flowers. By the mere 

 tints of their foliage a native can recognize valuable trees in the richly 

 figured tapestry of the canopj^ of the forest. Thus, the cascarilleros of 



Fig. 131. Profile view of the tropical rain-forest near Blumenau, Brazil. The palm is 

 Euterpe edulis. From a photograpli by H. Scheiick. 



the Andes look for an elevated point from which they can fi.x the positior 

 in the forest of the scattered quinine trees. 



Even the side view of the tropical rain-forest differs essentially frotr 

 that of a European forest ; it is not as with us bounded above by a nearlj 

 level line, but is irregularly jagged, crested, and furrowed (Figs. 131, 132) 

 In a natural condition, for instance on the bank of water-courses, such sid( 

 views of the forest are so overhung with liaries and epiphytes that tht 

 stems are quite invisible and even the crowns appear veiled. In ai: 

 artificial side view, due to a forest-clearing, the great diversity in thd 

 tree-trunks, the irregular tangle of lianes, and the variety in the forms 

 the foliaged crowns forcibly strike the eye (Fig- 130). 



