236 POPULAR GEOGRAPHY OF PLANTS. 



luxuriant profusion, and "refreshed at the same time by 

 European coolness ;" whilst the air is filled with rich per- 

 fume from the small white blossoms of various species of 

 the aromatic Laurel tribe.* 



Nor are the blossoms of the plants which climb over 

 these trees less beautiful than those of the trees which sup- 

 port them. Amongst the most splendid are the scarlet 

 trumpet-flowered B.ignonias, and a magnificent climber, 

 called Solandra grandiflora y of the Solanacete family. The 

 blossom is a large yellow cup full six inches in depth, with 

 five not very deep divisions; in form not unlike an old- 

 fashioned, bell-shaped tumbler. The climbing Puchsias too 

 are a lovely sight, especially F. mtegrifolia, Cambess., which 

 often clambers " to the height of sixty or even a hundred 

 feet, and then falls down in the most beautiful festoons," 

 mingling its crimson blossoms with the green leaves of the 

 tree on which it hangs. 



Whilst lost in admiration of all this beauty, our eye sud- 

 denly falls upon a dark and rather unshapely figure climbing 

 head downwards along the branch of a tree, which tree is 



* Not the shrubs which commonly go by that name in England, but the 

 true Laurels, only one species of which, the Lawrus nolilis, or Bay-tree, 

 grows wild in Europe. 



