Travel Tales 
of a PI ant Coll ector 
E. H. WILSON 
Assistant Director of the Arnold Arboretum 
Author of “Romance of Our Trees,’’ “Aristocrats of the Garden,” “A Naturalist in Western China 
XI. THE TROPICS OF THE OLD WORLD 
I he Monotonous March of Nature Under the Equator and the Sublimity of 
Virgin Forests—Plants of Parrot-like Gaiety for Greenhouse and Garden 
Editors’ Note By his unparalleled contribution to Occidental gardens of more than 2,000 new trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants brought back from a fourteen- 
year search in the Far East, Mr. Wilson has won the permanent gratitude of gardeners everywhere. Many of his introductions are already established in popular 
favor, and nearly 200 have received the authoritative stamp of the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Merit. 
The exclusive privilege of publishing these accounts of “Chinese Wilson’s” recent plant explorations through Africa, Asia, and Australia, in the footsteps of the 
older plant collectors, has been accorded The Garden Magazine, and preceding articles will be found in issues beginning with January of this year. 
Copyright, D. P. & Co., 1923 
R?/M^%EOPLE whose lives are spent in the cool temperate 
P \^\ regions of the world have in general exaggerated ideas 
ycM'ld of the tropics. The great heat which they hear of or 
iiEiidiS imagine impresses them unpleasantly, and visions of 
noxious wild animals and deadly diseases arise until the picture 
becomes a nightmare. A visit to the hothouses of botanic 
gardens or those of private estates filled with strange plants 
bearing noble and handsomely marked foliage or brilliantly 
colored blossoms gives another aspect to the tropics yet such a 
scene is apt to warp one’s ideas just as much as the thoughts of 
excessive heat, wild animals, and diseases. It is doubtful if any 
article or book, no matter how truthfully written, can convey 
any real idea of the tropics. 
As a matter of fact, compared with temperate regions where 
such kaleidoscopic changes are wrought by the change of the 
seasons the tropics are deadly monotonous. Perpetual summer 
reigns and the only change of season is that of wet and dry and 
this is not always fixed and recognizable as such. Trees, shrubs, 
and herbs flower and fruit throughout the year and leaves are 
shed at any time. Where wet and dry seasons prevail, drought 
induces a periodic fall of the leaf. Young unfolding leaves are 
often delicately and beautifully colored, but the tropics boast 
nothing comparable to the wondrous autumnal tints of the north. 
To the embellishment of our hothouses all parts of the 
tropics have contributed, and for the proper appreciation of our 
subject it is necessary to distinguish between the equatorial 
regions of the old and new worlds. It is only the lesser plants 
of the tropics that can be successfully accommodated in our 
stove- and palm-houses, be these ever so vast. The climbers 
and major trees of the tropics are almost unknown to dwellers 
of the north since they need greater room than even such giant 
glass structures as the Palm house at Kew affords. In many 
parts of the tropics to which steamers regularly ply there have 
been established fine botanic gardens and parks. One so 
fortunate as to visit these will get a liberal education in the 
luxuriant vegetation of the tropics. If the visit be extended 
to several of the gardens, no matter in which hemisphere, the 
same trees and climbers will be seen planted over and over 
again. Among climbers the traveller will never be out of sight 
of the Bougainvillea with intensely colored bracts of rich 
magenta or brick red according to the species. Of Palms the 
Cocoanut and Royal are omnipresent. These and others are of 
the New World and have been carried everywhere, the Cocoa- 
nut by ocean currents, others by the hand of man. These and 
many other American plants now universally planted in the 
tropics shall receive their full recognition in due course, but first 
let us survey the tropical plants of the Old World. 
The Flamboyant Tree that Flowers in Flame 
O NE of the trees most widely planted in the tropics for orna¬ 
mental purposes is Poinciana regia, the Flamboyant tree, 
a native of Madagascar. The farthest north I have seen this 
tree in flower is Port Said at the entrance to the Suez Canal. 
I he Flamboyant is a member of a branch of the familiar Pea 
family which, by the way, is within the tropics the family richest 
in tree forms. This Poinciana is a flat-topped, deciduous- 
leafed tree usually from 40 to 50 ft. tall with a short trunk and 
a wide-spreading crown of thick branches. Its leaves, which 
are finely divided and Mimosa-like, are shed at any time in the 
year. So precocious is this species that I have seen three 
trees side by side,one naked and laden with old fruits,one in full 
flower, and the third crowded with green foliage. The flowers 
are borne in large clusters, usually at the end of naked shoots, 
occasionally with the unfolding leaves, and have large intense 
scarlet petals flushed with yellow at their base. In full flower 
this tree is a blaze of scarlet so intense as to dazzle and even hurt 
the eyes. When bare of flowers and foliage and with only its 
black-brown flattened woody pods, each well over a foot long, 
the tree is ugly; but in blossom it is among the most gorgeous 
members of the tree-world. It is one of the most familiar sights 
in the tropics and one which every traveller admires. 
Much more beautiful but more rarely seen is Colvillea race- 
mosa, another Madagascar tree also belonging to the Pea 
family. I first saw a large tree in full flower in the Brisbane 
Botanic Gardens and was captivated immediately by its beauty. 
It has leaves like the Flamboyant tree, similar in size but with 
rather smaller pinnae, and terminal compound panicle two 
feet and more high and more than a foot broad of wondrous 
orange-yellow flowers. A flat-topped tree not more than 50 
ft. tall but more through the crown, this Colvillea when in flower 
is a marvellous spectacle of loveliness. 
Another tree much planted in the tropics is Spathodea cam- 
panulata, native of Africa. This is a relative of the Indian 
Bean-tree ( Catalpa speciosa ) and has pinnate leaves and panicles 
of large flowers scarlet suffused and edged with yellow. The 
African Baobab is among the wonders of the vegetable world. 
In bulk of trunk it probably exceeds all other trees. In height 
it is seldom more than 100 ft, but the trunk is enormous though 
so soft and full of pith that a rifle bullet easily passes through 
170 
