6,S 



Among the other epiphytes are many species of Piperaceae, 

 some of the genus Peperomia having showy variegated foli- 

 age. And one or two Marantaceae seem to be sometimes climb- 

 ing from the ground and again truly epiphytic. Of course, as to 

 numbers of individuals, the epiphytic flora is easily dominated 

 by filmy ferus, Selaginella, and tremendous patches of mosses, 

 so that these cryptogams clothe with green the lower, darker and 

 moister part of tree trunks whose bark is otherwise as smooth 

 and often as light as a young white oak. 



This upper and lower stratification of epiphytes seem to 

 be clear reflection of the light and moisture differences between 

 the canopy and the forest floor. The light-demanding and 

 relatively drought-resistant bromeliads and orchids are mostly 

 all up near the canopy, while the moisture-demanding and 

 highly tolerant (in the forestry sense) cryptogams are practi- 

 cally confined to the atmospheric layer on or near the forest 

 floor. 



The moisture conditions on this forest floor are, in the 

 absence of instrumental verification, impossible to state. A 

 layer of leaves and humus of unknown depth, but apparently 

 at least two feet thick, soak up the rain, more than half the 

 total yearly amount of which falls during the period of January to 

 May. Not in a steady fall, but in torrential downpours, often six 

 or eight of such occurring in a few hours. These are punctuated 

 by perfectly still periods of sunshine, or of moist almost fog- 

 like cloudiness, and it is during these intervals that the lower 

 strata of the forest seem to reek of warm steaming vapors. 



In such an atmosphere vegetation luxuriates, and man, at 

 least at Para does not seem to suffer much, for the death rate 

 here has not been more than five to the thousand greater than 

 New York during the last twenty years, when malaria and yel- 

 low fever were checked.* The conditions in the real jungle are 

 very much the same, but, of course, the incidence of malaria is 

 much greater while yellow fever is all but unknown there, as it 

 appears to be one of the benefits of civilization. 



The forest is hung and festooned with lianes. Weird tales 

 have been written of these curious growths of a tropical forest, 

 some of the more gifted of the writers having endowed them 



* Since writing this there has been an outbreak of yellow fever at Para. 



