THE AMAZON VALLEY. 
445 
The structure of some are unknown, and he is pleased to 
examine them. The locality of another is doubtful, and 
he feels a great pleasure in determining it. He is ever 
examining individual objects, and confounds his own in- 
terest in them, from a variety of causes, with the sensa- 
tions produced by their beauty, and thus is led to give 
exaggerated descriptions of the luxuriance and splen- 
dour of the vegetation. 
As most travellers are naturalists, this supposition will 
account for the ideas of the tropics generally obtained 
from a perusal of their works. 
If I have come to a different conclusion, it is not that 
I am incapable of appreciating the splendours of tro- 
pical scenery, but because I believe that they are not of 
the kind usually represented, and that the scenery of 
our own land is, of its own kind, unsurpassed : there 
is nothing approaching it in the tropics, nor is the 
scenery of the tropics to be found with us. There, — • 
singular forms of stems and climbers, gigantic leaves, 
elegant palms, and individual plants with brilliant flow- 
ers, are the characteristic features. Here,- — an endless 
carpet of verdure, with masses of gay blossoms, the va- 
rying hues of the foliage, and the constant variety of 
plain and forest, meadow and woodland, more than in- 
dividual objects, are what fill the beholder with delight. 
