216 PAEABITE PbAWTS. 
liolds nature under an unexpected aspect. He feels at every 
step, that he is not on the confines but in the centre of the 
torrid zone ; not in one of the West India Islands, but on 
a vast continent ■where everything is gigantic, — mountains, 
rivers, and the mass of vegetation. If he feel strongly 
the beauty of picturesque scenery he can scarcely define 
the various emotions which crowd! upon his mind; he can 
scarcely distinguish what most excites his admiration, the 
deep silence of those solitudes, the individual beautv and 
contrast of forms, or that vigour and freshness of vegetable 
life which characterize the climate of the tropics. It might 
be said that the earth, overloaded with plants, does not allow 
them space enough to unfold themselves. The trunks of 
the trees are everywhere concealed under a thick carpet of 
verdure ; and if we carefully transplanted the orchide®, the 
pipers, and the pothoses, nourished by a single courbaril, or 
American fig-tree,* we should cover a vast extent of ground. 
By tins singular assemblage, the forests, as well as the flanks 
of the rocks and mountains, enlarge the domains of organic 
nature. The same lianas which creep on the ground, reach 
the tops of the trees, and pass from one to another at the 
height of more than a hundred feet. Thus, by the continual 
interlacing of parasite plants, the botanist 'is often led to 
confound one with another, the flowers, the fruits, and leaves, 
which belong to different species. 
We walked for some hours under the shade of these 
arcades, which scarcely admit a glimpse of the sky; the 
latter appeared to me of an indigo blue, the deeper in shade 
because the green of the equinoctial plants is generally of a 
stronger hue, with somewhat of a brownish tint. A great 
fern tree,t very different from the Polypodium arboreum of 
the West Indies, rose above masses of scattered rocks. In 
tins place we were struck for the first time with the sight of 
those nests m the shape of bottles, or small bags, which are 
suspended from the branches of the lowest trees, and which 
attest the wonderful industry of the orioles, which mingle 
then warblmg with the hoarse cries of the parrots and the 
macaws. These last, so well known for their vivid colours 
fly only in pairs, while the real parrots wander about in 
flocks of several hundreds. A man must have lived in those 
* Ficus nymphseifolia. + Possibly our Aspidium caducim. 
