174 M THE GUIANA FOREST. 



the craft under, while we scramble over the 

 trunk. 



These fallen trees give opportunities to seedlings 

 not to be had in the forest proper. Floods have 

 loosened their roots, and they come down some 

 day with a crash, allowing the sunlight to penetrate 

 where there are myriads of seeds only waiting its 

 advent to enter the field of battle. With our 

 knowledge of the intense struggle always going 

 on in the forest, we can hardly conceive how a 

 seedling can make headway at all on the banks 

 of the creeks, where the strife is so much greater. 

 Its rivals are so many, and their tactics so different, 

 that success would almost seem impossible. If we 

 look at the lower vegetation, we find that a great 

 many species have acquired the power of increasing 

 by suckers, which faculty is wanting in the forest 

 trees. Marantas, heliconias, palms, and arums, 

 spread over large surfaces by this means ; every 

 new sucker is protected by the parent clump, and 

 pushes its rivals farther and farther as it increases 

 in size. Here also are dense shrubs with very 

 stiff branches, in many cases armed with spines. 

 Between these and the tender-leaved marantas 

 there is a continual struggle. The latter try their 

 best to cover everything with their glorious crowns, 

 but the thorns and stiff twigs continually tear 



