HUMBOLDT ON THE VIRGIN FOREST. 389 



grown, seldom exceeds forty feet ; the leaves are somewhat less droop- 

 ing, and the leaflets broader, than in other species ; but if less beauti- 

 ful, it is, perhaps, far more remarkable. Its roots grow above ground, 

 radiating from the trunk at an elevation of ten or twelve feet, so that 

 the tree seems to be supported on stilts ; and when it is old, a person 

 can stand upright amongst the roots with the perpendicular stem 

 wholly above his head ! About midway, this stem bulges out in a 

 circular swelling, which gives it its distinctive name. The roots 

 closely resemble straight rods, but they are studded with stout thorns, 

 whilst the trunk of the Pashiuba is perfectly smooth. 



It is in the vast primeval forests of Central and Southern America, 

 and in the leafy wildernesses of the great East Indian islands Borneo, 

 Sumatra, Java, Madagascar that man may still contemplate in all its 

 savage majesty the prodigious Flora of the Tropics. These, too, are 

 the haunts of many remarkable animals mammals, and birds, and 

 reptiles which are there comparatively safe from the pitiless perse- 

 cution of the hunter and the trapper. 



To obtain an idea which, however, can only be very vague and 

 imperfect of the strange and imposing spectacle and the unexpected 

 scenes which at every step astonish the traveller in the great Tropical 

 woodlands, we must study the descriptions of those few but richly 

 endowed adventurers who, after exploring them with the enlightened 

 curiosity of science, have been able to embody the results in language 

 worthy of the subject. 



In the foremost rank of those who have possessed the twofold 

 qualification of scientific knowledge and descriptive power, we must 

 place the illustrious Humboldt. His works are a rich store-house 

 from which later writers have freely borrowed the materials of their 

 essays. In reference to the phrases " Virgin Forest/' " Primeval 

 Forest," he has some judicious observations : Ought we to call, he 

 says, by either of these appellations every kind of wild thick wood, 

 encumbered with vigorous trees, upon which man has never laid his 

 destructive hand? In that case they would be appropriate in a 

 number of very different countries, under the Temperate, ay, and 



