IX 



In the delineation of tropical scenery the plants would be 

 represented ever struggling, as it were, for the mastery, 

 and in a state of actual conflict for existence ; the larger 

 trees in danger of perishing within the grasp of snake-like 

 lianas which entwine themselves around their branches, and 

 seem about to throttle them in their embraces ; the smaller 

 and weaker plants only wanting room to develope their re- 

 pressed energies, and greedily seizing upon whatever scanty 

 vacancies the fall of any of these giants of the vegetable 

 world may have left for them to occupy. 



In the forests of Europe, on the contrary, all is peace and 

 tranquillity, a few species of timber-trees having established 

 themselves in quiet possession of the soil, and allowing no 

 interlopers to dispute their sovereignty, or to interfere with 

 their domain. Thus in Scandinavia, Professor Hausmann 

 says, two evergreen trees the Scotch and the Spruce Fir 

 seem, as it were, to monopolize the soil ; and whether it 

 be owing to the care of the forests being in these regions 

 committed wholly to Nature, their extent is in general far 

 more remarkable than in countries where they are more 

 watched over by man. The Scotch Fir in particular, which 

 on the sandy plains of Northern Germany is found, for 

 the most part, in a crooked form, here surpasses even the 



