II 
EQUATORIAL VEGETATION 
269 
which the component parts exhibit in detail untold variety 
and beauty.” 1 
To the student of nature the vegetation of the tropics will 
ever be of surpassing interest, whether for the variety of 
forms and structures which it presents, for the boundless 
energy with which the life of plants is therein manifested, or 
for the help which it gives us in our search after the laws 
which have determined the production of such infinitely 
varied organisms. When, for the first time, the traveller 
wanders in these primeval forests, he can scarcely fail to 
experience sensations of awe, akin to those excited by the 
trackless ocean or the alpine snowfields. There is a vastness, 
a solemnity, a gloom, a sense of solitude and of human 
insignificance, which for a time overwhelm him ; and it is only 
when the novelty of these feelings have passed away that he 
is able to turn his attention to the separate constituents that 
combine to produce these emotions, and examine the varied 
and beautiful forms of life which, in inexhaustible profusion, 
are spread around him. 
1 The Naturalist in Nicaragua, p. 98. 
