THE EQUATORIAL FORESTS 
Varieties of Bark 
The bark of the trees is usually smooth, or 
so nearly so that at a short distance the shallow 
clefts are undistinguishable ; and I have seen no 
instance in the plains of trunks so picturesquely 
rugged as those of our old oaks and elms. In 
many trees the bark peels off in flakes, as, for 
example, in all arborescent myrtles, in some 
Leguminosse, Rubiaceae, etc., so that their trunks 
vary in colour according to the season of the year, 
being green or olive when they have just shed 
their old bark, and afterwards turning reddish or 
brownish.^ 
Some trees have a bark which admits of being 
split into an almost indefinite number of thin flakes 
or sheets. Those species of Tecoma (of the order 
Bignoniaceae) which have digitate leaves, afford the 
most perfect examples of this property ; and strips 
of their bark, made up into rolls, are commonly 
sold in the towns on the Amazon, under the name 
of Tauan', as a substitute for paper in the fabrica- 
tion of cigaritos. 
The bark of the Lecythids may be beaten out 
into a loose mass resembling tow, and is excellent 
material for caulking seams. 
Other barks when beaten out form compact felty 
sheets, hanging together by the tenacious fibres ; 
^ The trunks of large trees, especially near rivers, get sometimes completely 
encased in the vi^hite crust of lichens (chiefly species of Graphide?e) ; and there 
is one tree frequent on the banks of the Amazon whose Indian name Mira- 
tinga (:= White tree) indicates the constant snowy whiteness of its trunk. 
[This is probably the origin cf the pure white colour of the stems and 
branches of some of the poplars and plane trees in the United States and 
Canada, which causes them to look exactly as if whitewashed. — Ed.] 
