ch. iv.] Orchids at Home. 53 



feet to two hundred feet in height tower upwards on all 

 sides; and one walks in the shade diffused light is perhaps 

 the more correct expression the tree trunks being the 

 pillars of Nature's cathedral, and the leafy branches high 

 up above represent the roof. All the vegetation you see 

 around you on earth, rocks or fallen trunks, is repre- 

 sented by a few ferns, lindsayas, with bright steel-blue 

 fronds a yard high, broad-leaved aroicls, or ginger- 

 worts ; but epiphytes of all kinds seem totally absent : 

 and the truth is, that, like lovable " Tom Bowling," 

 of Dibdin's minstrelsy, they, too, have "gone aloft." 

 Above you is a world of light and air and sunshine which 

 birds, insects, and flowers alike enjoy. You feel very 

 small and helpless as you try to catch a glimpse of the 

 plants and flowers so high above you, and almost envy 

 the long-armed red monke}'s that swing themselves so 

 easily from bough to bough. The monkey, however, has 

 a rival in the human natives of these forest wilds, and it 

 would be extremely puzzling to find a tree so thick, or 

 tall, or otherwise so difficult to climb, that the lithe and 

 dusky native would fail to reach its summit. The chances 

 are that he will literally walk up a slender tree in the 

 neighbourhood with the aid of hands and feet, and then 

 find a route to the one you wish him to explore by way 

 of the interlaced branches so high above you. If any 

 sufficiently stout lianas are dangling near, he ascends 

 hand-over-hand in a wa} r that would delight the most 

 accomplished gymnast ; and if the tree so stood that the 

 ascent could onty be accomplished by the direct way of 

 its own gigantic trunk, then the chances are that a stair 

 of bamboo pegs would enable the ingenious savage to 

 effect his object of scouring the branches, and sending 

 the epiplrytes in showers to your feet. Nor does he 

 neglect to glean such other jungle produce as comes in 



