44 JOURNAL OP THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



trees) it adds itself to the mighty gathering of its fellows which 

 have already lost themselves in the main river. 



Miners' speak of the oozing of water from the over-saturated 

 earth as " seepage." Such a creek as I mean is the seepage of the 

 tropical forest swamp. It indeed has a channel — near the 

 mouth often a deep channel — but it has, in its upper reaches, no 

 banks, so that while part of its water hurries leisurely to the 

 river, the rest spreads for an indefinite distance on each side ; 

 and there, having washed bare the fantastic tree roots, lies half 

 stagnant, and loads and overloads the air imprisoned between 

 the floor and the roof of the forest. 



And just as the densely matted forest roof almost shuts in 

 the moisture-laden air, so it almost shuts out the light of the 

 sun. Even when at midday the tropic sun is reflected with most 

 dazzling brilliance from the tropic sky above, here below there 

 is hardly more than twilight pierced by countless tiny shafts of 

 full light, which here and there strike through the less crowded 

 leaves far down into the gloom. 



The light is too faint for much plant life, and the black 

 vegetable refuse which represents the soil is almost bare. Moss 

 and such delicately small growths as cover our English ground 

 are nowhere to be seen. What plants are there are mostly of 

 striking and singular aspect, giving the scene a weird and 

 uncanny look. 



There are weedy clumps of great sedgelike plants. There are 

 a few ground-loving Aroids with quaintly coloured and marked 

 stems, with quainter heart-shaped leaves, and with quaintest 

 flowers. There are ferns, some large and coarse-growing, the 

 fronds of these loaded with the young plants, which would perish 

 in the too great moisture below ; others of lower stature and 

 more delicately cut, the fronds of these often coated with the mud 

 washed on to them by the last flood. Here and there — and 

 these are the greenest patches — a beautiful and rampantly grow- 

 ing Selacjinella has spread itself over places where the ground is 

 a little higher ; while close by, and in most beautiful contrast, 

 are the broad oval leaves of the sweet-smelling Wood Lily 

 (Ilymenocallis guianensis), lifting toward the light its stately 

 cluster of delicately white trumpet-shaped flowers, from which 

 hang loosely down the curiously long, narrow, and quaintly 

 twisted petals. 



