THE TROPICAL ZONE. 187 



February). The period of blossoming of particular trees 

 is often limited to a few days, so that the traveller is not 

 unfrequently doomed to disappointment by finding on his 

 arrival in the region of Palms that the blossoms have passed 

 away." Besides which, perhaps only three or four different 

 species are to be met with in an area of 32,000 square 

 miles, so that it is impossible for the same individual, unless 

 he were ubiquitous, to make acquaintance with them all in 

 one season, during the brief period of blossoming. 



But even supposing the botanist to arrive just in time for 

 the flowering season, he has often the mortification of seeing 

 the much-desired blossoms suspended at a height of sixty 

 or seventy feet above his head, from stems formidably armed 

 with huge thorns, with no available means of reaching them 

 at hand. "They who contemplate distant travels from Eu- 

 rope for the purpose of investigating subjects .of natural 

 history, picture to themselves (says Humboldt) visions of 

 efficient shears and curved knives attached to poles, ready 

 for -securing anything that comes in their way ; and of boys 

 who, obedient to their mandates, are prepared with a cord 

 attached to their feet to climb the loftiest trees ! Unfor- 

 tunately scarcely any of these visions are ever realized." It 

 is also an additional mortification that the natives, who for 



