HARMONIES. 



or upon excrescences, where they often grow to an 

 immense size, and have the appearance of an aloe, 

 the length of a man, hanging down gracefully 

 from a giddy height over the head of the passer- 

 by. 



Among the various plants which spring from 

 the branches or cling to the stems of the trees, are 

 gray, moss-like plants hanging down, not unlike 

 horses' tails, from the branches which support the 

 orchids and tillandsias ; or one might fancy them 

 the long beards of these venerable giants of the 

 forest, that have stood unbent beneath the weight 

 of a thousand years. Myriads of lianes hang 

 down to the ground, or are suspended in the air, 

 several inches thick, and not unfrequently the size 

 of a man's body, coated with bark like the 

 branches of the trees. But it is impossible for any 

 one to conceive the fantastic forms they assume, 

 all interlaced and entangled: sometimes they de- 

 pend like straight poles to the ground, where 

 striking root, they might, from their thickness, be 

 taken for trees ; at other times they resemble large 

 loops or rings, from ten to twenty feet in 

 diameter, or are so twisted that they look like 

 cables. Sometimes they lace the tree regularly 

 from distance to distance; often they embrace it 

 so closely as to choke it, and cause the leaves to 

 fall off, so that it stretches out its dead gigantic 

 arms like branches of white coral, among the 

 fresh verdure of the forest, — a picture of death, 

 surprising us in the midst of the most blooming 

 life : frequently they give the old trunk a new cov- 

 ering of leaves, so that the same tree appears 

 clothed in several different kinds of foliage.* 



So, if space permitted, we might depict the 

 brown bear emerging from his winter retreat in 



* kk Travels of Prince Adalbert in Brazil," p. 15, et seq. 

 5 65 



