coAF. xvl] IURS.YESS of FLOIVERS, 



237 



The reader who is familiar with tropical nature only 

 through the medium of books and hotauicul gardens, will 

 picture to himself in such a spot many other natural 

 beauties. He will thiuk that I have unaccountably tor- 

 {^otten to mention the brilUant (lowers, which, in goi-geous 

 masses of crimson gold or azure, nmst spangle these 

 verdant precipices, hang over the casciide, and adorn the 

 margin of tlie mountain stream. But what is the reality ? 

 In vain did I gaze over these vast walls of verdure, among 

 the pendant creepers and bushy shrubs, all around the 

 cascade, on the river's bank, or hi the deep caverns and 

 gloomy tissurea, — not one single spot of hriglit colour 

 could be seen, not one single tree or bush or creeper 

 bore a iluwer sulliciently conspicuous to form an object 

 in tlie landscape. In every direction the eye rested on 

 (t?reen foliage and mottled rock. There was intiuite variety 

 in the colour and aspect of the foliage, there was grandeur 

 in the rocky masses ami in the exuberant luxuriance of 

 t!ie vegetation, but there was no brilliancy of colour,, none 

 of those bright Itowers and goi^eous masses of blossom, 

 so generally considered to be everywhere present in the 

 tropics. I have here given an accurate sketch of a luxu- 

 riant tropical scene as noted down on the spot, and its 

 generid cliaracteristics as regards colour have been so often 

 repeatetl, both in South America and over many thousiujd 

 niLlevS in the Eastern tropics, that I am driven to conclude 

 that it represents the general aspect of nature in the 

 equatorial (that is, the most tropical) parts of the tropical 

 regions. IIow is it then, that the descriptions of travellers 

 generally give a very diffi^'ent idea ? and where, it may be 

 asked, dre the glorious tlowers that we know do exist in 

 the tropics? These questions can be easily answered. 

 The line tropical tlowering-plants cultivated in our hot- 

 houses, have been culled from the most varied regions, 

 and therefore give a most erroneous idea of their abun- 

 dance in any one ix^gion. Many of them are very nire, 

 others extremely local, while a considerable uumbur 

 inhabit the more arid regions of Africa and India, in which 

 tropical vegetation does not exhibit itself in its usual 

 liLxuriance. Fine and varie<i foliage, rather than gay 

 Howersi, is more characteiistic of those parts where tropical 



