THE FORESTS OF TEOFICAL AMERICA 79 



monkeys; here the padres of the mission-stations, which are 

 not many miles apart in a direct line, often require more than 

 a day's navigation to visit each other, following the windings 

 of small rivulets in their courses, as the forest renders com- 

 munication by land impossible. 



Even the more open parts of the forest are full of mysteries. 

 In our woods the summits of the highest trees are accessible ; 

 there is no blossom that we are not able to pluck, — no plant 

 that we are not able to examine, from its root to its topmost 

 branches; but in the Brazilian forest, where the matted bush- 

 ropes, climbing along the trunks and branches, extend like the 

 rigging of a ship from one tree to another, and blossom at a 

 giddy height, it is frequently as impossible to reach these 

 flowers, as it is to distinguish to which of the many interlacing 

 stems they may belong. 



If any one should be inclined to tax this description with 

 exaggeration, let him try to pluck the flowers of the lianas, or 

 to ascend by climbing their flexible cordage. The tiger-cat and 

 the monkey, perhaps also the agile Indian, may be able to 

 accomplish the feat ; but it would be utterly hopeless for the 

 European to undertake it. Nor is it possible to drag down one 

 of these inaccessible creepers ; for, owing to their strength and 

 toughness, it would be easier to pull down the tree to which it 

 attaches itself than to force the liana from its hold. 



No botanist ever entered a primitive forest without envying 

 the bird to whom no blossom is inaccessible, who, high above 

 the loftiest trees, looks down upon the sea of verdure, and 

 enjoys prospects whose beauty can hardly be imagined by man. 



A majestic uniformity is the character of our woods, which 

 often consist but of one species of tree, while in the tropical 

 forests an immense variety of families strive for existence, and 

 even in a small space one neighbour scarcely ever resembles 

 the other. Even at a distance this difference becomes ap- 

 parent in the irregular outlines of the forest, as here an airy 

 dt)me-shaped crown, there a pointed pyramid, rises above the 

 broad flat masses of green, in ever-varying succession. On ap- 

 proaching, the differences of colour are added to the irregu- 

 larities of form ; for while our forests are deprived of the 

 ornament of flowers, many tropical trees have large blossoms, 

 mixing in thick bunches with the leaves, and often entirely 



