An Impression of the Guiana Wilderness 381 



wall of vegetation that rises above them 

 and no longer appear as dominating or 

 physiognomic types in the landscape ; 

 they are hardly more than sporadic com- 

 ponents of the vegetation. 



It is only when we penetrate into the 

 interior of this great forest, when we 

 study the individual elements that com- 

 pose it, that we begin to be impressed 

 with distinctive characteristics. One can 

 truly say that almost every tree of the 

 South American primeval forest is a 

 botanical garden of its own. Rising up 

 in supreme magnificence, the trunk 

 hardly sending out a branch before it has 

 attained a height of 125 or 150 feet, and 

 completely overgrown with creeping and 

 climbing plants, aroids and orchids, it is 

 as wholly different from the trees of the 

 northern woods as it well can be. The 

 tendency to spreading umbrella-like 

 crowns likewise differentiates the forest 

 components of the south, as do also the 

 giant buttressed roots which distinguish 

 so many of the species. 



Alfred Russell Wallace, who has en- 

 joyed unusual advantages for the study 

 of the general characteristics of tropical 

 vegetation, has emphasized as one of the 

 marked features of the tropical forest the 

 absence of flowers. He says, indeed, that 

 one may travel for weeks at a time along 

 the streams of the Amazon region with- 

 out once realizing those aspects of floral 

 development which, whether by profu- 

 sion of growth or by size and color, im- 

 press the landscape of temperate regions. 

 This picture does not seem to apply to the 

 forest of the river banks of the Guianas, 

 and its inaccuracy has been pointed out 

 by that acute student of nature Mr M. 

 Turn. The streamers of purple, red, and 

 white which hang down over the forest 

 curtain easily recall in profusion and 



wealth of color the flowers of the north — 

 the field daisy, clover, and buttercup. In- 

 deed, it would be difficult to recall in 

 forests of the north, even as rare in- 

 stances, that display of flowers which so 

 frequently repeats itself here. 



The extraordinary passifloras, the cas- 

 sias, the rhexias, and innumerable or- 

 chids are a glory unto themselves. It is 

 only on or close to the banks of the 

 rivers that the forest in any way ap- 

 proaches impenetrability. Farther in- 

 ward, where the more majestic portion of 

 the forest is reached, there is compara- 

 tively little undergrowth, and the giant 

 foresters stand up unbroken, like the sup- 

 porting pillars the interior of a church.. 



The animal life of the forest surprised 

 me by its numbers. It was not the silent 

 wilderness, the nature that was hushed to 

 sound, that the writings of some natural- 

 ists had led me to believe that it was. 

 From the early hours of morning until 

 sunfall, the forest rings with the cries of 

 the Toucan and parrot, while the metallic 

 tones of the chatterers and buzz-saw 

 beetle swing out in majestic cadence a 

 parting of the ways. At night-time this 

 side of the forest is silent ; but other 

 strange sounds — the fitful roar of the 

 howling monkey, the croak of the Suri- 

 nam toad — give ample evidence that the 

 land is still of the living. It was this 

 way, at least, that I found the forest in 

 April. There were but few insect pests 

 to annoy one, and that assumedly om- 

 nipresent torment of the southern wilds, 

 the mosquito, was virtually entirely ab- 

 sent. 



This brief picture is, without doubt, 

 not the true picture of the entire Guiana 

 wilderness, but it is an impression which 

 a few weeks' journey of wholesome 

 pleasure has brought to me. 



