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EQUATORIAL VEGETATION 
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parts of the world might occupy a volume ; but the preceding 
sketch will serve to give an idea of how important a part is 
filled by this noble family of plants, whether we regard them 
as a portion of the beautiful vegetation of the tropics, or in 
relation to the manners and customs, the lives and the well- 
being, of the indigenous inhabitants. 
Ferns 
The type of plants which, next to palms, most attracts 
attention in the equatorial zone is perhaps that of the 
ferns, which here display themselves in vast profusion and 
variety. They grow abundantly on rocks and on decaying 
trees; they clothe the sides of ravines and the margins of 
streams ; they climb up the trees and over bushes ; they form 
tufts and hanging festoons among the highest branches. 
Some are as small as mosses, others have huge fronds eight or 
ten feet long, while in mountainous districts the most elegant 
of the group, the tree-ferns, bear their graceful crowns on 
slender stems twenty to thirty, or even fifty feet high. It is 
this immense variety rather than any special features that 
characterises the fern -vegetation of the tropics. We have 
here almost every conceivable modification of size, form of 
fronds, position of spores, and habit of growth, in plants that 
still remain unmistakably ferns. Many climb over shrubs 
and bushes in a most elegant manner; others cling closely 
to the bark of trees like ivy. The great birds’- nest fern 
(Platycerium) attaches its shell-like fronds high up on the 
trunks of lofty trees. Many small terrestrial species have 
digitate, or ovate, or ivy -shaped, or even whorled fronds, 
resembling at first sight those of some herbaceous flowering 
plants. Their numbers may be judged from the fact that in 
the vicinity of Tarrapoto, in Peru, Dr. Spruce gathered two 
hundred and fifty species of ferns, while the single volcanic 
mountains of Pangerango in Java (ten thousand feet high) is 
said to have produced three hundred species. 
Ginger-worts and wild Bananas 
These plants, forming the families Zingiberacese and 
Musaceae of botanists, are very conspicuous ornaments of the 
equatorial forests, on account of their large size, fine foliage, 
