In vain
did I gaze over these vast walls of verdure, among the pendant
creepers and bushy shrubs, all
Around the cascade on the river's
bank, or in the deep caverns and gloomy fissures - not one single
spot of bright colour could be seen, not one single tree or bush
or creeper bore a flower sufficiently conspicuous to form an
object in the landscape. In every direction the eye rested on
green foliage and mottled rock. There was infinite variety in the
colour and aspect of the foliage; there was grandeur in the rocky
masses and in the exuberant luxuriance of the vegetation; but
there was no brilliancy of colour, none of those bright flowers
and gorgeous masses of blossom so generally considered to be
everywhere present in the tropics. I have here given an accurate
sketch of a luxuriant tropical scene as noted down on the spot,
and its general characteristics as regards colour have been so
often repeated, both in South America and over many thousand
miles in the Eastern tropics, that I am driven to conclude that
it represents the general aspect of nature at the equatorial
(that is, the most tropical) parts of the tropical regions.
How is it then, that the descriptions of travellers generally give
a very different idea? and where, it may be asked, are the
glorious flowers that we know do exist in the tropics? These
questions can be easily answered. The fine tropical flowering-
plants cultivated in our hothouses have been culled from the
most varied regions, and therefore give a most erroneous idea of
their abundance in any one region.
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