VEGETABLE AND ANIMAL PRODUCTIONS. 325 
like a level plain, even as the top of a well-trimmed 
hedge; its surface is here and there broken by the 
giant mahogany, or seamed by the river and its afflu¬ 
ents. Rosewood, cedar, palo de mulatto, cacao, figs, 1 
are all here, and the palms, from the noble cohune to 
the insignificant chamaedoras, are plentifully scattered 
among the other trees. During the season of flowers the 
brilliant yellow of the wild tamarind ( Schizolobium ), 
the equally bright magenta of the Palo de Cortez, and 
the white of the plumosa, appear to the observer from 
above like a rich mosaic, while all this color is invisi¬ 
ble to one who is beneath these trees. All vegetation 
here is not merely luxuriant, it is composite. There 
are no solitary trees, no hermits, in the vegetable world. 
Every trunk is but a trellis for vines, some of them, 
like the matapalo, strangling the fostering tree, or a 
nest for plants that do not seem able to get up in the 
forest on their own stems. If I find a branch in 
blossom, I must make sure that it is of the tree it¬ 
self, and not part of some mistletoe-like hanger-on. 
I have seen single trees bearing on their trunk and 
branches enough orchids and other choice plants to 
stock a hothouse. The matapalo deserves more than 
a passing word, for it is the type of a numerous group 
of plants in the tropics. This vine may start from 
the ground, but quite as often it germinates in the 
hollow of a branch, or among the other parasites of 
the higher branches; in either case it is at first a 
slender, innocent-looking vine, clinging timidly to the 
1 These are not the edible figs, but many varieties of the fig family that 
form an important food for monkeys and birds. In the latter part of this 
book I have given a list of the more important trees of this forest region. 
