On ascending the mountain, we first meet with temperate
forms of herbaceous plants, so low as 3,000 feet,
where strawberries and violets begin to grow, but the
former are tasteless, and the latter have very small and
pale flowers. Weedy Compositse also begin to give a
European aspect to the wayside herbage. It is between
2,000 and 5,000 feet that the forests and ravines exhibit
the utmost development of tropical luxuriance and beauty.
The abundance of noble Tree-ferns, sometimes fifty feet
high, contributes greatly to the general effect, since of all
the forms of tropical vegetation they are certainly the most
striking and beautiful. Some of the deep ravines whicli
have been cleared of large timber are full of them from
top to bottom ; and where the road crosses one of these
valleys, the view of their feathery crowns, in varied
positions above and below the eye, offers a spectacle of
picturesque beauty never to be forgotten. The splendid
foliage of the broad-leaved Musacese and Zingiberacese,
with their curious and brilliant flowers; and the elegant and
varied forms of plants allied to Begonia and Melastoma,
continually attract the attention in this region. Filling
up the spaces between the trees and larger plants, on
every trunk and stump and branch, are hosts of Orchids,
Ferns and Lycopods, which wave and hang and intertwine
in ever-varying complexity. At about 5,000 feet
I first saw horsetails (Equisetum), very like our own
species. At 6,000
feet, Raspberries
abound, and thence
to the summit of
the mountain there
are three species
of eatable Rubus.
At 7,000 feet Cypresses
appear, and
the forest trees become
reduced in
size, and more
covered w ith
mosses andliehens.
From this point
upward these
rapidly increase,
so that the blocks
of rock and scoria
that form the
PRIMULA IMPERIALIS
mountain slope are
completely hidden in a mossy vegetation. At about 8,000
feet European forms of plants become abundant. Several
species of Honey-suckle, St. J,ohn’s-wort, and Guelder-rose
abound, and at about 9,000 feet we first meet with the rare
and beautiful Royal Cowslip (Primula imperialis), which