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Show 276 TROPICAL FORE~·ta. . d ven forests ; and lf marsh, they resemble ree s, _or e ear for the greater they are in dry places they dtsapp reserved by part of the dry season, unless _thet~ a~ there is little artificial watering. So that 11~ 1; splendid. Not beauty. But the woods are r~ them are gigantic, merely the palms, though ~~~~ya o si~ple grandeur of and almost a~l of them to no other tribe of vegechara. cter which belongs b the species almost tables, but the other ~re~~'e ~ndisturbed but often what they may, are, t~~ very excess of vege~ablc impenetrabl_e fores_ts, 1 . the trees are so thickly action. Bnght ~sIS t 1eo~~mturns mid-day into twimatted, that their shad e full of monkeys gamlight; and the brat:ch~s t~e most fantastic manner ; boiling and chatterm£ m . ;odaclytic, or yoke-footed and of parrots and ~t·lf.: zr~plumage, scrambling and birds, o_f the most nr~an The earth, too, w_hene~ er screammg everr;~e u~ breaks in, is glistemng 'Ylth a bP.am of the bng. ~ . 11 radiant with hummmglizards, and the 111~~ f~sn~ies of the northern romc~nbirds; so that. a e re of conrse limned only wtth cers, whose pl~~t~e~l ~y knew, about fairy-land, are tl:e colours w !C . 1 d sim le reality. outdone by the·1~am a~r par~sitic.al plants, are per Then the ep~p ytece, d f 1 The rrreater number haps even m Ore won er hu . d. rnanoy of the B n.t w. h b 1 to the o1·c 1. ece, f of them e on~ ct by the singular forms o species of whiCh attra ·' f even those who are their flowers, the attentl?n oture The "bee," the not habitua~ o~sderv,~n; ~ ~~ny ~ther names, hav.e "fly," the '· spl er, an resemblances to the ambeen given to them fr~: which are not altoget~cr mals they are named af . ' of the native species fanciful. Thedm~re c~~~udsry chalky heights; ~n.d are most abun an on . 1 are worthy of a visit those soils, in Kent ~pec~~l y, a month later for the in April or May fo{; e !Bll ~~~ the bee. But they fly, and a mofinthd :o efhe chalk districts; for some are not con ne ORCHIDEJE. 277 are found in bogs, others in woods, and others again at considerable elevations on the cold and steril mountr1ins. The British ones are all bulbous herbaceous plants, with annual stems, and they annually produce one or more bulbs at the root. The roots of all contain a very soft and glutinous matter, which makes a who~es?me light gruel, under the name of" salep," a~d 1s, 111 some of the foreign species, made into a kmd of vegetable glue. But curious as some of the British one~ are, _they are nothing compared with those that are natives of the tropical countries. It is difficult to imagine a whimsical figure that shall not ~ave a sort of likeness in one or another of them ; and m the forests there, some of the monkeys and some of the :flowers of the orchidece so much resemble each other that if it were not for the motion and 1 the chattering, a stranger would hesitate a little before deciding which were the face of the animal and which the flower. In their tints of colour they are most brilliant, and the contrasts are perhaps the finest that are to be met with in all the pencilling of nature. Nor are the plants so diminutive, or of so short duration, as they are with us. Many of them are perennial; and though there are perhaps none of which the roots and stems can be considered as wood, yet they continue to endure and to grow where wood never grew. Tt would be impossible, however, in any description that could be written, to convey a popu lar notion of their forms ; but there are some of them that, in point of absolute beauty, and in as far as flowers are concerned that is utility, are entitled to take the lead among the whole of the :flower producing- tribes. The following is a black outline of part of the :flower of the one which may perhaps be regarded as the foremost of the tribe, and in point of floral beauty, the foremost of the whole vegetable king A a |