GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF PLANTS. 555 



Of gentle motion swung; 



Others of younger growth, unmoved, were hung 

 Like stone-drops from the cavern's fretted height. 



Beneath was smooth and fair to sight, 

 Nor weeds nor briars deform'd the natural floor ; 

 And through, the leafy cope which bower'd it o'er 



Came gleams of chequer'd light. 



So like a temple did it seem, that there 



A pious heart's first impulse would be prayer." 



The same tribes which are the slender and humble plants of northern regions, become 

 lofty trees within the tropics, as several of the grasses, the bamboo rising to the height 

 of sixty feet, the hollow stalk of which is capable of being constructed into capacious 

 household vessels. Some of the family of leguminosce are hardy-flowering trees, and con- 

 tribute greatly to the beauty of the gardens of northern climes, as the Robinia and the 

 Labernum, but they give way before the splendour and elegance of their tropical 

 brethren. The flowers of the Erethrina, or coral tree, are of the deepest and most 

 brilliant crimson, and appear in profusion upon some of the loftiest trees of the forest, 

 while the Bauhinias, with their snake-like stems, and twin leaves, hang in festoons from 

 branch to branch of other trees, and are only rivalled by the less vigorous but more 

 richly coloured blossoms of the Carpopogons. But from these the Mimosa bears away 

 the palm, with its rugged trunk, airy foliage, and golden flowers, which cast a charm 

 over even the sterile wastes of burning Africa. 



All naturalists, who have visited equinoctial America, have found it impossible to 

 convey any adequate idea of the impression produced upon the mind by its forests, con- 

 sisting of noble trees, thickly planted by the hand of nature, the trunks of which are not 

 covered with moss and lichen as in our climate, but with creeping plants ascending from 

 the ground to the very summit of the trees, binding the whole together into a closely 

 united mass of vegetation, and adorning it with brilliant flowers. " When a traveller," 

 says Humboldt, " newly arrived from Europe, penetrates for the first time into the forests 

 of South America, if he is strongly susceptible of the beauty of picturesque scenery, he 

 can scarcely define the various emotions which crowd upon his mind ; he can scarcely 

 distinguish what most excites his admiration the deep silence of these solitudes, the 

 individual beauty and contrast of forms, or that vigour and freshness of vegetable life 

 which characterise the climate of the tropics. It might be said that the earth, over- 

 loaded with plants, does not allow them space to unfold themselves. So thick and 

 uninterrupted are the forests which cover the plains of South America between the 

 Orinoco and the Amazon, that, were it not for intervening rivers, the monkeys, almost 

 the only inhabitants of these regions, might pass along the tops of the trees for several 

 hundred miles together without touching the earth." Towards the junction of the 

 Cassiaquaire with the Orinoco, " the luxuriousness of the vegetation increases in a 

 manner of which it is difficult, even for those who are accustomed to the aspect of the 

 forests between the tropics, to form an idea. There is no longer a beach ; a palisade of 

 tufted trees forms the bank of the river. You see a canal 200 toises (426 yards) broad, 

 bordered by two enormous walls, clothed with lianas and foliage. We often tried to 

 land, but without being able to step out of the boat. Towards sunset we sailed along 

 the bank for an hour, to discover, not an opening, since none exists, but a spot less 

 wooded, where our Indians, by means of the hatchet and manual labour, could gain space 

 enough for a resting-place for twelve or thirteen persons." Mr. Darwin records similar 

 facts and impressions : " During the second day's journey, we found the road so shut 

 up, that it was necessary that a man should go abroad with a sword to cut away the 

 creepers. The woody creepers, themselves covered by others, were of great thickness ; 



