TROPICAL VEGETATION. 



525 



CHAPTER V. 



CHARACTERISTIC EORMS OF TROPICAL VEGETATION. 



General Features of Tropical Forests— Number of Species of Plants — The Baobab — Its Gigan- 

 tic Size — Age of the Great Trees — Dragon-Trees — The Great Dragon-Tree of Orotava — 

 The Sycamore— The Banyan— The Sacred Bo-Tree— The Oldest Historical Tree— The 

 Teak— The Satin-wood— The Sandal Tree— The Ceiba— The Mahogany Tree— The Mora 

 — The Guadua — Bamboos — The Aloe — The Agave — The Cactus — The Screw Pine — 

 Mimosas — Lianas — Climbing Trees — Epiphytes — Water Plants — Buttressed Trees — Trees 

 with Fantastic Roots — Mangroves — Marsh Forests — Palms — The Cocoa Palm — The Sago 

 Palm— The Saguer Palm— The Areca Palm— The Palmyra Palm— The Talipot Palm— 

 Ratans — The Date Palm — Oil Palms — Variety of Size, Form, Foliage and Fruit — Future 

 Commercial Value of the Palm. 



"HEREVER in the tropical regions periodical rains saturate the earth, vege- 



V V table life expands in a wonderful variety of forms. In the higher latitudes 

 of the frozen north, a rapidly evanescent summer produces but few and rare flowers in 

 sheltered situations, soon again to disappear under the winter's snow; in the temperate 

 zones, the number, beauty and variety of plants increase with the warmth of a genial 

 sky ; but it is only where the vertical rays of an equatorial sun awaken and foster life 

 on humid grounds that ever-youthful Flora appears in the full exuberance of her 

 creative power. It is only there we find the majestic palms, the elegant mimosas, the 

 large-leafed bananas, and so many other beautiful forms of vegetation alien to more cold 

 and variable climes. While our trees are but sparingly clad with scanty lichens and 

 mosses, they are there covered with stately bromelias and wondrous orchids. Sweet- 

 smelling vanillas and passifloras wind round the giants of the forest, and large flowers 

 break forth from their rough bark, or even from their very roots. 



" The tropical trees," says Humboldt, " are endowed with richer juices, ornamented 

 with a fresher green, and decked with larger and more lustrous leaves than those of 

 the more northerly regions. Social plants, which render European vegetation so 

 monotonous, are but rarely found within the tropics. Trees, nearly twice as high 

 as our oaks, there glow with blossoms large and magnificent as those of our lilies. 

 On the shady banks of the Magdalena river, in South America, grows a climbing 

 Aristolochia, whose flower, of a circumference of four feet, the children, while play- 

 ing, sometimes wear as a helmet; and in the Indian Archipelago the blossom 

 of the Rafflesia measures three feet in diameter, and weighs more than fourteen 

 pounds." 



The number of known plants is estimated at about 200,000, and the greater part of 

 this vast multitude of species belongs to the torrid zone. But if we consider how very 

 imperfectly these sunny regions have as yet been explored, — that in South America 



