396 CERTAIN NATURAL MEMORABILIA. 



The whole eastern horizon becomes almost suddenly black, and this 

 darkness spreads upwards, obscuring the " orb of day." 



Then through the forest hurtles a mighty wind, swaying the 

 lofty tree- tops; a vivid flash of lightning bursts forth, then breaks a 

 crash of thunder, and down streams the deluging rain. Such storms 

 soon cease, leaving bluish-black motionless clouds in the sky until 

 night. Meantime all nature is refreshed; but heaps of flower-leaves 

 and fallen petals lie under the trees. Towards evening life revives 

 again, and the ringing uproar is resumed from bush and tree. The 

 following morning the sun again rises in a cloudless sky, and so the 

 cycle is completed ; spring, summer, and autumn, as it were, in one 

 tropical day. The days are more or less like this throughout the 

 year in this country. A little difference exists between the dry and 

 wet seasons ; but generally the dry season, which lasts from July to 

 December, is varied with showers ; and the wet, from January to 

 June, with sunny days. 



" It results from this," says Mr. Bates, ' that the periodical 

 phenomena of plants and animals do not take place at about the same 

 time in all species, or in the individuals of any given species, as they 

 do in temperate countries. Of course there is no hybemation, nor, 

 as the dry season is not excessive, is there any summer torpidity as 

 in some tropical countries. Plants do not flower or shed their leaves, 

 nor do birds moult, pair, or breed simultaneously. In Europe, a 

 woodland scene has its spring, its summer, its autumnal, and its 

 winter aspects. In the equatorial forests the aspect is the same, or 

 nearly so, every day in the year budding, flowering, fruiting, and 

 leaf-shedding are always going on in one species or other. The 

 activity of birds and insects proceeds without interruption, each 

 species having its own separate times. The colonies of wasps, for 

 instance, do not die off annually, leaving only the queens, as in cold 

 climates ; but the succession of generations and colonies goes on 

 incessantly. It is never either spring, summer, or autumn, but each 

 day is a combination of all three. With the day and night always 

 of equal length, the atmospheric disturbances of each day neutralizing 



