II 



A JUNGLE CLEARING 



WITHIN six degrees of the Equator, shut in 

 by jungle, on a cloudless day in mid- August, I 

 found a comfortable seat on a slope of sandy soil 

 sown with grass and weeds in the clearing back 

 of Kartabo laboratory. I was shaded only by a 

 few leaves of a low walnut-like sapling, yet there 

 was not the slightest hint of oppressive heat. It 

 might have been a warm August day in New 

 England or Canada, except for the softness of 

 the air. 



In my little cleared glade there was no plant 

 which would be wholly out of place on a New 

 England country hillside. With debotanized 

 vision I saw foliage of sumach, elm, hickory, 

 peach, and alder, and the weeds all about were 

 as familiar as those of any New Jersey meadow. 

 The most abundant flowers were Mazaruni 

 daisies, cheerful little pale primroses, and close 

 to me, fairly overhanging the paper as I wrote, 

 was the spindling button-weed, a wanderer from 



34 



