THE WILD BANANA 



33 



like that of certain monkeys. Many other similar in- 

 stances could be enumerated, but I will mention only 

 the Geodephaga, or carnivorous ground beetles, a great 

 proportion of whose genera and species in these forest 

 regions are, by the structure of their feet, fitted to live 

 exclusively on the branches and leaves of trees. 



Many of the woody lianas suspended from trees are 

 not climbers but the air-roots of epiphytous plants (Aroi- 

 dese), which sit on the stronger boughs of the trees above, 

 and hang down straight as plumb-lines. Some are sus- 

 pended singly, others in leashes ; some reach halfway 

 to the ground and others touch it, striking their rootlets 

 into the earth. The underwood in this part of the forest 

 was composed partly of younger trees of the same species 

 as their taller neighbours, and partly of palms of many 

 species, some of them twenty to thirty feet in height, 

 others small and delicate, with stems no thicker than a 

 finger. These latter (different kinds of Bactris) bore 

 small bunches of fruit, red or black, often containing a 

 sweet grape-like juice. 



Further on the ground became more swampy, and we 

 had some difficulty in picking our way. The wild banana 

 (Urania Amazonica) here began to appear, and, as it 

 grew in masses, imparted a new aspect to the scene. 

 The leaves of this beautiful plant are like broad sword- 

 blades, eight feet in length and a foot broad ; they rise 

 straight upwards, alternately, from the top of a stem 

 five or six feet high. Numerous kinds of plants with 

 leaves similar in shape to these but smaller, clothed the 

 ground. Amongst them were species of Marantacese, 

 some of which had broad glossy leaves, with long leaf- 

 stalks radiating from joints in a reed-like stem. The 

 trunks of the trees were clothed with climbing ferns, and 

 Pothos plants with large, fleshy, heart-shaped leaves. 

 Bamboos and other tall grass and reed-like plants arched 

 over the pathway. The appearance of this part of the 

 forest was strange in the extreme ; description can con- 

 vey no adequate idea of it. The reader who has visited 

 Kew may form some notion by conceiving a vegetation 

 like that in the great palm-house spread over a large 

 tract of swampy ground, but he must fancy it mingled 

 with large exogenous trees similar to our oaks and elms 

 't:overed with creepers and parasites, and figure to himself 

 the ground encumbered with fallen and rotting trunks, 

 c 



