340 THE .ESTHETICS OF 



incomparably fuller and more crowded vegetation of a 

 tropical forest, we feel strangely disappointed to find all 

 there so bright and full of light. 



This wealth of vegetation, which descends from the 

 loftiest summits of the Palms and Bertholletias, from spray 

 to bough, from bough to trunk, beclothes the earth and 

 hangs in rich festoons across the airy interspaces, would be 

 totally impossible if the indispensable light had not free 

 passage down even to the humblest corners. The dense 

 shade of our woods, which, compared with the tropical 

 forests, even our needle-leaved Firs produce by their 

 closely-crowded branches, through which they are 

 enabled to resist the autumnal storms, the savage winter, 

 the burdening weight of the snow-masses prevents that 

 rich and varied development of vegetable life immediately 

 beneath the trees which, under the tropics, fills up and 

 decorates each nook in length and breadth, in height and 

 depth. For the character of the tropical forest trees lies 

 in a peculiar, wide-spreading aerial, ramification, and a foliage 

 which, imitating in little and particular, the bearing of the 

 Palms, only makes good its place on the extremest points 

 of the branchlets. Besides this, there is the great diversity 

 of the plants which are assembled in a little space, and 

 shoot up into the air in such varying modes, that even in 

 the distance, a tropical wood does not present the simple 

 rounded outline of a northern Beech or Lime wood. 

 Lastly, too, comes the predominance, or at least frequent 

 occurrence of shining leaves which, reflecting the light, send 

 it down into duskier shade ; or the white surface of the 

 high upraised Palm-leaves and other foliage which, like 

 mirrors, throw the sun's rays into the inmost recesses 

 of the woods. From these and perhaps from countless 



