ASPECTS OF TROPICAL FORESTS. 



515 



take a survey of the general aspects of the great forests, and especially of that which 

 covers, with scarcely an interruption, the valley of the Amazon, in whose almost unin- 

 habited depths the whole habitable part of Europe might be hidden away. 



The peculiar charms of the tropical primitive forest are enhanced by the mystery of 

 its impenetrable thickets ; for however lovely its lofty vaults and ever-changing forms 

 of leaf or blossom may be, fancy paints scenes still more beautiful beyond, where the 

 eye cannot penetrate, and where, as yet, no wanderer has ever strayed. In the bound- 

 less forests of tropical America, the jaguar sometimes loses himself in such impenetrable 

 thickets that, unable to hunt upon the ground, he lives for a long time on the trees, a 

 terror to the monkeys. Here the padres of the mission-stations, which are not many 

 miles apart in a direct line, often require more than a day's navigation to visit each 

 other, following the windings of small rivulets in their courses, as the forest renders 

 communication by land impossible. The matted bush-ropes, climbing along the trunks 

 and branches, extend like the rigging of a ship from one tree to another, and blossom 

 at such a giddy hight that it is frequently as impossible to reach these flowers as it is 

 to distinguish to which of the many interlacing stems they may belong. Nor is it 

 possible to drag down one of these inaccessible creepers ; for, owing to their strength 

 and toughness, it would be easier to pull down the tree to which it attaches itself than 

 to force the liana from its hold. No botanist ever entered a primitive forest without 

 envying the bird to whom no blossom is inaccessible ; who, high above the loftiest 

 trees, looks down upon the sea of verdure, and enjoys prospects whose beauty can 

 hardly be imagined by man. 



A majestic uniformity is the character of our woods, which often consist but of one 

 species of tree, while in the tropical forests an immense variety of families strive for 

 existence, and even in a small space one neighbor scarcely ever resembles the otiier. 

 Within the space of half a mile square, Agassiz counted one hundred and seventeen 

 different kinds of wood, many of them fitted for the finest cabinet work. Even at a 

 distance this difference becomes apparent in the irregular outlines of the forest, as here 

 an airy dome shaped crown, there a pointed pyramid, rises above the broad flat masses 

 of green, in ever varying succession. On approaching, the differences of color are 

 added to the irregularities of form ; for while our forests are deprived of the ornament 

 of flowers, many tropical trees have large blossoms, mixing in thick bunches with the 

 leaves, and often entirely overpowering the verdure of the foliage by their gaudy 

 tints. Thus splendid white, yellow, or red colored crowns are mingled with those of 

 darker or more humble hue. At length when, on entering the forest, the single leaves 

 become distinguishable, even the last traces of harmony disappear. Here they are 

 delicately feathered, there lobed ; here narrow, there broad ; here pointed, there 

 obtuse ; here lustrous and fleshy, as if in the full luxuriance of youth, there dark and 

 arid, as if decayed with age. In many the inferior surface is covered with hair; and 

 as the wind plays with the foliage, it appears now silvery, now dark green, now of a 

 lively, now of a melancholy, hue. Thus the foliage exhibits an endless variety of 

 form and color; and where plants of the same species unite in a small group, they are 

 mostly shoots from the roots of an old stem. Where so many thousand forms of equal 

 pretensions vie for the possession of the soil, none is able to expand its crown or extend 

 its branches at full liberty. Hence there is a universal tendency upwards ; for it is 

 only by overtopping its neighbors that each tree can hope to attain the region of free- 



