V WOODS AND FIELDS 179- 



The great tropical forests have a totally- 

 different character from ours. I reproduce 

 here the plate from Kingsley's At Last. The 

 trees strike all travellers by their magnificence, 

 the luxuriance of their vegetation, a.nd their 

 great variety. Our forests contain compara- 

 tively few species, whereas in the tropics we 

 are assured that it is far from common to see 

 two of the same species near one another. 

 But while in our forests the species are few, 

 each tree has an independence and individu- 

 ality of its own. In the tropics, on the con- 

 trary, they are interlaced and interwoven,: so 

 *as to form one mass of vegetation ; many of 

 the trunks are almost concealed by an undeir- 

 growth of verdure, and intertwined by spiral 

 stems of parasitic plants ; from tree to tree 

 hang an inextricable network of lianas, and it 

 is often difficult to tell to which tree the 

 fruits, flowers, and leaves really belong. The 

 trunks run straight up to a great height with- 

 out a branch, and then form a thick leafy 

 canopy far overhead ; a canopy so dense that' 

 even the blaze of the cloudless, blue' sky is 

 subdued, one might almost say into a weird' 



