452 ^'^^ GUINEA, [CFAP. xxxrv. 



the earth, and exhilit thera in a proximity to each other 

 which never occurs in nature. A hundred distinct plants, 

 all witli bright, or strange, or gorgeous flowers, make a 

 wonderful show when brought together; but perhaps no 

 two of these plants could ever be seen tofrether in a 

 state of nature, each inhabiting a distant region or a 

 different station. Again, all moderately warm extra- 

 European countries are mixed up with the ti'opics in 

 general estimation, and a vague idea is formed that 

 whatever is pre-eminently beautiful must come from the 

 hottest parts of the earth. But the fact is quite the 

 contrary, Ehododendrons and azaleas are plants of tem- 

 perate regions, the grandest lilies are from temperate 

 Japan, and a large proportion of our most showy flower- 

 ing plants are natives of the Himalayas, of the Cape, of 

 the United Stattis, of Chili, or of China and Japan, aU 

 temperate regions. True, there ai'e a great number of 

 grand and gorgeous flowei^ in the tropics, but the pro- 

 portion they bear to the mass of the vegetation is ex- 

 ceedingly small; so that what appears an anomaly is 

 nevertheless a fact, and the effect of flowers on the 

 general aspect of nature is far less in the equatorial 

 than in the temperate regions of the eartk 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 



NEW GtmfEA, — DOREY, 

 {MABOB TO JULY 1868.) 



AFTER my return from Gilolo to Ternate, in March 

 1858, I made arrangements for my long-wished-for 

 voyage to the mainland of New Guinea, wliere I antici- 

 pated that my collections would surpass those which 1 had 

 formed at the Aru Islands. The poverty of Ternate in 

 articles used by Europeans was shown, by my searching in 

 vain through "ail the stores for such common things as 



