162 
real cliildren of the mist, delight in a di izzling atmosphere, and 
support with ease the violence of stormy winds, and the often 
icy coldness of the Serras, whether stationed within a few feet 
of the earth, or swinging in the air from the houghs of the an- 
cient patriarchs of the forest. Some grow in deep recesses and 
gloomy arcades, where there is a perpetual circulation of a damp 
and heated atmosphere ; others, on the contrary, prefer the open 
glades, or Rocas, where some fallen trees, whose own foliage has 
perished, supply them with a scanty but sufficient nourishment. 
It is impossible to form an idea of a tropical forest by the 
woods of Europe, where the ivy is the only parasite which finds 
a permanent support. The Sertoes, or virgin woods, which cover 
a part of America, present the traveller w ith scenery incompar- 
able for its majestic character, and rich variety. AA'ho is there 
that would not be astonished at finding himself amidst a veget- 
ation, of which each individual struggles with its neighbour for 
existence, darting up, eagerly searching for the light of a cloud- 
less sun and a purer air, only to be found at a prodigious eleva- 
tion, and leaving darkness and water at their feet. It is here 
that trees of patriarchal age perish in the embrace of enormous 
climbers which overwhelm and bear them down, and which are 
sometimes carried overhead like cables, in other cases interlaced 
like the meshes of a net, and not unfrequently stand like lofty 
leaf-capped columns of spiral open-work, after the trees about 
which they have writhed themselves have fallen to decay with- 
in their grasp. 
Amidst this forest of ropes of sylvan rigging, grow innumera- 
ble Ferns, which hang down in plumes, or festoons, or the gay- 
est lacework, vast quantities of Araceous plants, and especially 
Tillandsias, forming broad patches of verdure upon a sombre 
ground. In the midst of airy garlands of Aristolochias, Big- 
nonias. Convolvuluses, and Passion-flowers live the Orchidaceae, 
each particular species of which seems to haunt its own peculiar 
plant. Thus the Epidendrum of the Cinchona refuses to live 
in the branches of the Lecythis and Couratari, notwithstanding 
that the seeds of these epiphytes are scattered indiscriminately 
by the wind. Other tribes again are always free from Orchid- 
aceae, as the huge trunks of Malvaceous trees, Isoras, Caroli- 
neas. Plantains, and Palms. 
