i6 WONDERS OF THE TROPICAL FORESTS. 
ful bignonias, banisterias, passifloras, and many otlier 
inextricably tanfflecl bush-ropes and creepers. Farther 
downwai'ds, though the lianas fitill appear in large 
numbers, tlie eye delights in palms of evei-y variety of 
form, in terebintbinaceas, in leguminosas, whose sap is 
rich with many a costly balsam; in laurels, bearing an 
abundance of aromatic fruit j or it admires the broad- 
leaved heliconias, the large blossoms of the solaneas, 
and thousands of other flowers, remarkable for the beauty 
of their colour, the strangeness of their form^ or their 
exquisite aroma. 
In the deep lowlands the forest assumes a severe and 
dismal character: dense crowns of foliage form lofty 
vaults almost impenetrable to the light of day; no 
underwood thrives on the swampy ground ; no parasite 
puts forth its delicate blossoms nnder the shade of the 
mighty trees, and only mushrooms sprout abundantly 
from the humid soil. 
Nothing can e([ual the gloom of these forests during 
the rainy season. Thick fogs obscure the damp and sultry 
air, and clouds of mosquitoes whirl about in the mist. 
The trees are dripping with moisture ; the flowers expand 
their petals only during the few dry hours of the day, 
and every animal seeks shelter in the thicket. Ko bird, 
no butterfly conies forth ; the snorting of the capybaras, 
and the monotonous croaking of frogs and toads, are the 
only sounds that break the dull silence. Night darkens 
with increasing sadness over these dismal solitudes ; no 
star is visible ; the moon disappears behind thick clouds ; 
and the roar of the jaguar, or the howling of the stentor- 
monkey, issue like notes of distress from the depth of 
the melancholy woods. 
A hurricane bursting over the primeval forest is one 
of the most terrific scenes of nature. A hollow uproar 
in the higher regions of the air, as if the wild huntsman 
of the German legends w^ere sweeping along with his 
whole pack of phantom hounds^ precedes the explosion 
