126 



FLORA AND SYLVA. 



mules. A person unused to the forest, he ob- 

 serves, would be in a sorry predicament, as 

 only a practised eye could discover the few 

 animals that harbour in its depths. These were 

 chiefly ant bears, sloths, and some smaller ani- 

 mals. One was a porcupine with a long pre- 

 hensile tail, used freely in passing from branch 

 to branch — an animal that feeds largely on 

 young birds. The author apparently does not 

 agree with the theory of protective colouring 

 of animals. " Is it not ridiculous," he asks, 

 " to talk of such animals as tigers, jaguars, and 

 puma requiring protection ? Birds certainly 

 do not get it." " Nature's idea," he concludes, 

 " is to create a pleasing and curious variety to 

 gratify the eye of man, nothing more." 



In a chapter headed " The District of the 

 Seven Lakes," he writes : " Tree and plant 

 life of marvellous forms abound. Orchids are 

 among the most striking objects of the floral 

 world, and some of the most beautiful are 

 found in forests so gloomy that they often es- 

 cape notice; it is surprising that they flourish 

 when they get so little light. Some of the 

 forest trees were remarkable for their bright, 

 brilliant blossoms and spreading limbs." The 

 most interesting to him, however, was the Cow 

 tree {palo de vaca), of which he saw several 

 varieties, some of them as high as 60 feet. He 

 describes it as a fairly graceful tree with some- 

 what angular, drooping branches and mode- 

 rately-sized oval leaves ; the fruit resembles a 

 large green plum, purplish when over-ripe, 



the fleshy covering of two nuts. The sap of 

 the tree is a milk having all the properties of 

 the best cow's milk. It is highly nutritious, 

 mixes well with water, hot or cold, and never 

 curdles in coffee, cocoa, or tea. It keeps good 

 for a week and has much the taste of cow's 

 milk in which cinnamon has been steeped. It 

 is rather thicker than cow's milk, having in the 

 mouth the feel of liquid gum. If left stand- 

 ing a thick unctuous cream arises, which when 

 dry has the consistency of wax. It is exceed- 

 ingly sustaining. Unless the tree is much 

 broken up or cut it does not seem to suffer 

 much from the loss of its sap. 



In the marshy parts of the forest grew the 

 Mora, one of the giant timber trees of Brazil, 

 yielding a very hard wood. The forests of the 

 interior were not so impenetrable as those 

 along the courses of great rivers and in the flat 

 marsh regions. The author's wanderings took 

 him among the Ecuador Andes and into the 

 highlands and llanos of New Granada, also to 

 the mountains and valleys of Chili and Peru, 

 regions of stupendous precipices and fright- 

 ful gaps crossed by precarious bridges. 



The book is full of interest. The only 

 pity is that the author's knowledge of trees and 

 plants is not such as to enable him to give 

 fuller descriptions of these ; but this is the less 

 to be deplored, as, naturally, the great trees of 

 the South American river banks are not such 

 as we can grow in our hemisphere. The book 

 is illustrated and well printed. 



Footpaths. — And there are other simple foot- 

 paths, which I remember loitering through day after 

 day, in the rural districts of England, with a sense of 

 enjoyment that never belonged to saunterings in the 

 alleys of Versailles. A man does not know England, 

 or English landscape, or English country feeling, 

 until he has broken away from railways, from cities, 

 from towns, and clambered over stiles, and lost him- 

 self in the fields. Talk of Chatsworth,and Blenheim, 

 and Eaton Hall ! Does a man know the pleasure 

 of healthy digestion by eating whip-syllabub? Did 

 Turner go to Belvoir Castle park for the landscapes 

 which link us to God's earth ? What a joy and a 



delight in those field footpaths of England ! Not 

 the paths of owners only ; not cautiously gravelled 

 walks ; but all men's paths, where any wayfarer may 

 go ; worn smooth by poor feet and rich feet, idle 

 feet and working feet ; open across the fields from 

 time immemorial ; God's paths for his people, 

 which no man may shut ; winding — coiling over 

 stiles — leaping on stepping-stones through brooks 

 — with curves more graceful than Hogarth's — 

 hieroglyphics of the Great Master written on the 

 land, which, being interpreted, say — Love one an- 

 other. — Ik. Marvel. 



