THE VEGETATION OP THE VIRGIN-FOREST. 
Ill 
nurture in the light soil of the igapo, while thorny mimi-munis and 
Javtiry-palras, eacdo, various myrtaceae, and fig-trees prefer the vargem j 
which is flooded for only a short time of the' year. The noblo 
eastauhcira {Bertholletia excelsa), the cedar, and all the other splendid 
timbers of the tropics, thrive on the terra-firma only, above flood-level,' 
in the “drift” of Agassiz. . ... . 
The undermined concave shores are sometimes a serious danger to 
the passing barque, as even the slight ripple of a canoe is sufficient 
to bring down the loosely overhanging earth, often covered with gigantic 
trunks. These concave sides, with their fallen trees, and their clusters of 
sinlcing javary-palms, supported sometimes by only a tangled network 
of tough lianas, give to the scenery that peculiar character of primeval 
wildness, Avhich is so charming to foreigners. 
When one has climbed up the steep shore, often forming huge 
terrace-like elevations, and has saf(.-ly passed through a labyrinth of 
interwoven roots and creepers into the interior of the foinst, which is 
getting freer from underwood at some distance from the river, he is 
oppressed with the sensation of awe and wonder felt by man on entering 
one of the venerable edifices of antiquity. 
A mysterious twilight encompasses us, which serves to intensify 
the radiance of the occasional sunbeam, as it falls on a glossy jialm-leaf, 
or on a huge bunch of purple orchid-flowers. Splendid trunks, some 
of them from 20 to 30 feet in tUameter, rise like so many pillars 
supporting the dense green vault of foliage ; and every variety of 
tall, graceful palms, spare and bushy, and bearing heavy beiTies of 
bright yellow or red, struggle to catch a glimpse of the light, from 
which they are shut out by the neighbouring giants ; of which the 
figueira (or wild fig-tree) is one of the most striking, in the dimensions 
of its crown and stem, and in the strange shape of its roots, Avhich 
project like huge outAvorks. These seem to grow in all directions, 
forming props, stays, and cross-bars wherever they are Avanted, just 
as if the whole Avere a soft plastic mass, the sole purpose of AAdiich 
was to supply, A\dth a minimum of material, as much stability as 
possible to the trunk ; AV'hose wood is of extreme softness and Avhose 
roots are not deep.* The pachiuba-palm [Iriartea exorhiza) and some 
* Such tire tlieir plasticity and pliancy that a young figueira, taken out and 
planted Avith the hranche.? reversed, Avill take root in this position, its former roots 
changing into a fresh, oddly-fonued hut leafy croAvn. A yet more striking instance 
