THE TREES OF THE FORESTS. 
and, covered themaelves with smaller creepers and para- 
sitic plants, hide the parent stem from sight. 
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 npon the sea of 
verdure, and enjoys prospects whose beauty can hardly 
be imagined by man. 
A majestic uniformity is the character of oar woods, 
which often consists 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 neighbour 
scarcely ever resembles the other. Even at a distance 
this difference becomes apparent in the irregular out- 
lines of the forest, as here a dome-shaped crown, there a 
pointed pyramid, rises above the broad flat masses of 
green, in ever-varying succession. On approaching, the 
differences of colour are added to the irregnlarities of 
form ; for while our forests are deprived of the ornament 
of flowers, many tropical trees have large blossomSj mix- 
ing 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 coloured 
crowns are mingled with those of darker or more humble 
hue. At length when, on entering the forest, the single 
leaves become disfcingnishable, 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 fnll 
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 apix^ars 
now silvery, now dark green — -now of a lively, now of a 
sombre hue. Thus the foliage exhibits an endless variety 
of form and colour ; and where plants of the same species 
unite in a small group, they are mostly shoots from the 
roots of an old stem. This is chiefly the case with the 
palms ; but the species of the larger trees are generally 
