I
C H . IV .] Orchids at Home. 53
feet to two hundred feet in height tower upwards on all
sides; and one walks in the shade—diffused light is perhaps
the more correct expression—the tree trunks being the
pillars of Nature’s cathedral, and the leafy branches high
up above represent the roof. All the vegetation you see
around you on earth, rocks or fallen trunks, is represented
by a few ferns, lindsayas, with bright steel-blue
fronds a yard high, broad-leaved aroids, or ginger-
worts; hut epiphytes of all kinds seem totally absent:
and the truth is, that, like lovable “ Tom Bowling,”
of Dibdin’s minstrelsy, they, too, have “ gone aloft.”
Above you is a world of light and air and sunshine which
birds, insects, and flowers alike enjoy. You feel very
small and helpless as you try to catch a glimpse of the
plants and flowers so high above you, and almost envy
the long-armed red monkeys that swing themselves so
easily from hough to hough. The monkey, however, has
a rival in the human natives of these forest wilds, and it
would be extremely puzzling to find a tree so thick, or
tall, or otherwise so difficult to climb, that the lithe and
dusky native would fail to reach its summit. The chances
are that he will literally walk up a slender tree in the
neighbourhood with the aid of hands and feet, and then
find a route to the one you wish him to explore by way
of the interlaced branches so high above you. I f any
» sufficiently stout lianas are dangling near, he ascends
hand-over-hand in a way that would delight the most
accomplished gymnast; and if the tree so stood that the
ascent could only he accomplished by the direct way of
its own gigantic trunk, then the chances are that a stair
of bamboo pegs would enable the ingenious savage to
effect his object of scouring the branches, and sending
the epiphytes in showers to your feet. Nor does he
neglect to glean such other jungle produce as comes in