1848.] 



SENSITIVE PLANTS. 



7 



their fruits, often useful to man, give them a never-failing 

 interest to the naturalist, and to all who are familiar with 

 descriptions of the countries where they most abound. The 

 rest of the vegetation was hardly what I expected. We found 

 many beautiful flowers and climbing plants, but there are also 

 many places which are just as weedy in their appearance as in 

 our own bleak climate. But very few of the forest-trees were 

 in flower, and most of them had nothing very peculiar in their 

 appearance. The eye of the botanist, indeed, detects numer- 

 ous tropical forms in the structure of the stems, and the form 

 and arrangement of the leaves ; but most of them produce an 

 effect in the landscape remarkably similar to that of our own 

 oaks, elms, and beeches. These remarks apply only to the 

 immediate vicinity of the city, where the whole surface has 

 been cleared, and the present vegetation is a second growth. 

 On proceeding a few miles out of the town into the forest 

 which everywhere surrounds it, a very different scene is beheld. 

 Trees of an enormous height rise on every side. The foliage 

 varies from the most light and airy to the darkest and most 

 massive. Climbing and parasitic plants, with large shining 

 leaves, run up the trunks, and often mount even to the highest 

 branches, while others, with fantastic stems, hang like ropes 

 and cables from their summits. Many curious seeds and 

 fruits are here seen scattered on the ground; and there is 

 enough to engage the wonder and admiration of every lover 

 of nature. But even here there is something wanting that we 

 expected to find. The splendid Orchideous plants, so much 

 sought after in Europe, we had thought must abound in every 

 luxuriant tropical forest; yet here are none but a few small 

 species with dull brown or yellow flowers. Most of the 

 parasitic plants which clothe the stems of every old or fallen 

 tree with verdure, are of quite a different character, being ferns, 

 Tillandsias^ and species of Fothos and Caladium^ plants 

 resembling the Ethiopian lily so commonly cultivated in 

 houses. Among the shrubs near the city that immediately 

 attracted our attention were several Solanums, which are allied 

 to our potato. One of these grows from eight to twelve feet 

 high, with large woolly leaves, spines on both leaves and stem, 

 and handsome purple flowers larger than those of the potato* 

 Some other species have white flowers, and one much resembles 

 our bitter-sweet {Solanum Dulcamara). Many handsome 



