THE VEGETATION OF THE VIKGIN-FOREST. 
185 
have brought these plants to tho state of eulture we see them in now, 
unintentionally and almost involuntarily? To the present clay, even 
the wildest hordes have plantations of Indian corn, tobacco, cotton, 
plantains and mandioca, near their cabins; not on a large scale, of 
coiu'se, as that would be impossible with their roaming mode of life 
and inferior implements. No one can doubt that tho improved form 
exhibited by these plants is the result of a very ancient cultivation ; 
but there is no proof in it of an extinct higher civilisation on the 
part of the planters, though it must be confessed that the analogy 
with oiu- own nutritious plants, brought from the seats of the earliest 
civilisation, is rather tempting; and the contrast between the very 
primitive mode of life of half-naked savages and the existence of such 
treasures is, at fu-st sight, very striking. Another proof of the very 
ancient influence of man on these plants is the fact that some of them 
(as tho banana* and the pupimha-palm) no longer produce seeds fit 
for germination, but are entirely dependent on the human hand for 
theii' propagation ; and so is the existence of a great variety of others, 
tho ineban corn for instance. Of this, several tribes have favourite 
varieties, which they cultivate exclusively. Thus the Guaranis of tho 
Southern provinces prefer the small stripes Avith red and bluish speckles, 
whose grains are easily jjounded to a palataldo flour, Avhile the Coroados 
only plant corn with large sti’ipes, red on the lower and yellow at the 
upper end. 
To reach their present state of perfection, aU these plants required 
human tending the more that, Avith the single exception of tho pupunha, 
they Avere of the class of tender herbaceous plants, of short-lived dm-ation, 
incapable of thi-iviug in tho close mato virgem or inirneval forest, and 
Avhose light-green leaves and slender white stems ofl'er a striking 
contrast to the latter’s hard column-like trunks and dark-leaved under- 
Avood. Their fu’st requirements are air and sunshine, whereas the 
shade and protection of their OAvn leafy canopy are so A'itally necessary 
to the plants of tho mato Aurgem that, if seeds are planted in the 
ground on a space cleared beyond design, they do not germinate, but 
make room for a secondary vegetation, longing for air and light.t 
Tho Musacoro [2fma ptiradisinca), and tho other East Indian varieties imported 
by the Portuguoao [Jfuna nupientmn and the like), liavo numerous dioots if the shief 
stem is cut domi ; and nothing grows easier than tho banana in these climes : j'et 
its range would be a very limited one if it were left to multiply only in this way. 
1 In cur Eoi’opoan forests something similar is going on, though not in so striking 
