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 wras 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 in 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. Many of them are very rare,
others extremely local, while a considerable number
inhabit the more arid regions of Africa and India, in which
tropical vegetation does not exhibit itself in its usual
luxuriance. Fine and varied foliage, rather than gay
flowers, is more characteristic of those parts where tropical
vegetation attains its highest development, and in such
districts each kind of flower seldom lasts in perfection
more than a few weeks, or sometimes a few days. In
every locality a lengthened residence will show an abundance
of magnificent and gaily-blossomed plants, but they
h^ve to be sought for, and are rarely at any one time or
place so abundant as to form a perceptible feature in the
landscape. But it has been the custom of travellers to
describe and group together all the fine plants they have
met with during a long journey, and thus produce the
effect of a gay and flower-painted landscape. They have
rarely studied and described individual scenes where vegetation
was most luxuriant and beautiful, and fairly stated
what effect was produced in them by flowers. I have
done so frequently, and the result of these examinations
has convinced me, that the bright colours of flowers
have a much greater influence on the general aspect ot
nature in temperate than in tropical climates. During
twelve years spent amid the grandest tropical vegetation,
I have seen nothing comparable to the effect produced on
our landscapes by gorse, broom, heather, wild hyacinths,
hawthorn, purple orchises, and buttercups.