37 



lianas as creep on the ground, reach the tops 

 of the trees, and pass from one to another at 

 the height of more than a hundred feet. Thus 

 by a continual interlacing of parasite plants, 

 the botanist is often led to confound the flowers, 

 the fruits, and leaves, which belong to different 

 species. 



We walked for some hours under the shade 

 of these arcades, that scarcely admit a glimpse 

 of the sky ; which appeared to me of an indigo 

 blue, so much the deeper as the green of the 

 equinoctical plants is generally of a stronger hue, 

 with somewhat of a brownish tint. A great fern 

 tree *, very different from the poly podium ar- 

 boreum of the West Indies, rose above masses 

 of scattered rocks. In this place we were struck 

 for the first time with the sight of those nests in 

 the shape of bottles, or small pockets, which are 

 suspended to the branches of the lowest trees, 

 and which attest the admirable industry of the 

 orioles, that mingle their warblings with the 

 hoarse cries of the parrots and the macaws. 

 These last, so well known for their vivid colours, 

 fly only in pairs, while the real parrots wander 

 about in flocks of several hundreds. A man 

 must have lived in those climates, particularly in 

 the hot valleys of the Andes, to conceive how 

 these birds sometimes drown with their voice 



* Perhaps our aspidium cabucum. 



