34 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
epiphytes ; which is closed by mosses, Hchens, and 
a few bark- and leaf-loving fungi. 
The Various Fonns of Leaves 
It will be objected against me that I have 
described the mere skeleton of the arborescent 
vegetation, and that the foliage and flowers that 
adorn those wonderful trees and lianas appear to 
have been forgotten. In reality, the parasites we 
have just been considering, and the lianas, do often 
hide not merely the leaves of the trees, but even 
their mode of branching, which, when it comes to 
be examined, is found to be in many cases exceed- 
ingly regular and even geometrical, giving rise to a 
symmetry of outline that can only be appreciated 
in trees that tower above their neighbours, as in 
the dome-shaped Silk-cotton trees and some of the 
taller Nutmeg trees. In looking upward at the 
fretted leafy arches that span the space between 
the pillar- like trunks, and are projected on the 
vault of heaven beyond, the first impression is that 
the leaves are much smaller than they really are, 
from under-estimating the height at which they are 
hung ; and, on the contrary, the first sight of the 
finely divided Mimosa type of foliage at the summit 
of a lofty tree is apt to exaggerate the apparent 
height of the latter. But where the foliage can be 
seen sufficiently near, as on the banks of a river or 
along a broad forest-path, the general impression to 
a casual observer would be of massive glossy leaves, 
intermixed with light feather-like leaves of Mimosas 
and other similar plants, and with the gigantic plumes 
of palms ; while the botanist would be struck with the 
