1883.] Heath's Bolivian Explorations . 451 
The forest along the Beni River on the south side forms a 
margin from 1 to 10 miles in width, and on the north side it 
becomes a part of the great Amazonian forest, which ex- 
tends over 15 degrees of latitude. The Amazonian forest 
realizes the perfection of vegetable growth, and its magni- 
tude and diversity serve to overcome and bewilder the tra- 
veller. The gigantic trees, 200 feet in height, are so thickly 
woven together at the top that not a direct ray of light can 
penetrate the dense foliage, and the parasites and vines at 
the bottom form such a matting and tangle that no one can 
force his way through except by cutting a path with the 
macheta . This sea of verdure extends from the treeless 
Pampas of Buenos Ayres to the grassy steppes of Venezuela. 
Here the law of the “ survival of the fittest ” is illustrated 
to its fullest extent, species struggling with species and indi- 
vidual with individual, the weaker growth often climbing 
the more powerful neighbour while its roots are left to dangle 
in the air. These unconquered giants exhibit the greatest 
possible diversity, presenting an endless variety of growths, 
festooned, draped, matted, corded, and ribboned with plants 
creeping and climbing, starred with flowers, and covered 
with parasites. The dense dome of green overhead serves 
to confine the growth of flowers to the edges of the forest, 
and to the banks of rivers and lagunes, and the absence of 
sunlight has probably deprived the few flowers that appear 
of the bright colours of the temperate zone. The tranquil 
waters of shallow lakes which border the Amazon, however, 
produce the royal water-lily ( Victoria Regia), the most magni- 
ficent inflorescence in the world. It expands its broad leaves 
from 15 to 18 feet in circumference on the water, and un- 
folds its blossom a foot in diameter, which passes in a brief 
time from pure white to rose, and through the successive 
hues to bright red. Dr. Heath and his two Indians were 
from 6 o’clock in the morning until nearly noon cutting their 
way from the river through the forest to the Pampa on the 
south side, a distance of not over a mile, which they retraced 
in fifteen minutes. When it is desirable to make a clearing 
in an Amazonian forest a leaning tree is selected, and all the 
trees in the forest in front of it are cut on one side ; then the 
vines are severed, and the leaning tree is cut down, when all 
the trees come down with a crash. The vertical rays of the 
sun soon dry the fallen timber, so that fires will burn up all 
except the trunks. 
(To be continued.) 
