296 THE ARU ISLANDS. [chap, xxxiii. 



that in the most luxuriant parts of the tropics, flowers are 

 less abundant, on the average less showy, and are far less 

 effective in adding colour to the landscape than in tempe- 

 rate climates. I have never seen in the tropics such bril- 

 liant masses of colour as even England can show in her 

 furze-clad commons, her heathery mountain-sides, her glades 

 of wild hyacinths, her fields of poppies, her meadows of 

 buttercups and orchises — carpets of yellow, purple, azure- 

 blue, and fiery crimson, which the tropics can rarely ex- 

 hibit. We have smaller masses of colour in our hawthorn 

 and crab treies, our holly and mountain-ash, our broom, 

 foxgloves, primroses, and purple vetches, which clothe 

 with gay colours the whole length and breadth of our land. 

 These beauties are all common. They are characteristic of 

 the country and the climate ; they have riot to be sought 

 for, but they gladden the eye at every step. In the regions 

 of the equator, on the other hand, whether it be forest or 

 savannah, a sombre green clothes universal nature. You 

 may journey for hours, and even for days, and meet with 

 nothing to break the monotony. Flowers are everywhere 

 rare, and anything at all striking is only to be met with at 

 very distant intervals. 



The idea that nature exhibits gay colours in the tropics, 

 and that the general aspect of nature is there more bright 

 and varied in hue than with us, has even been made the 

 foundation of theories of art, and we have been forbidden 



