We well remember, but can only partially describe, the glory and beauty
of the Brazilian primeval forest. The general tone of the color is
brownish rather than light green, influenced by the absence of strong
light, for though the sun is glowing in the open country, here it is
twilight. Not one direct beam penetrates the density of the foliage, the
sombre drapery of the woods. At first one is awed by the vast extent of
the forest, by the dark, mournful shadows, by the gigantic trees
reaching so far heavenward, forming here and there gothic arcades of
matchless grandeur, and by the bewildering variety of the undergrowth.
Scarcely a tree trunk is seen without its parasite, green with foliage
not its own, "beyond the power of botanists to number up their tribe."
These dense jungles might be in India, or a bit out of "Darkest Africa;"
one is barred by an impenetrable wall of vegetation. Where palms occur,
it is almost always in groups; being a social tree, it loves the company
of its species. So with the bamboo, which is found in the more swampy
regions, but always in groups of its own family. These damp woods are
the home of the orchids; it is here that they revel in moisture,
clinging to the trunks of tall, columnar trees, fattening on decayed
portions of the bark, but forming bits of lovely color, while about the
stems of other forest monarchs wind creeping vines of rope-like texture,
binding huge trunks in a fatal embrace. Their final strangulation is
slow, but it is sure,--only a question of time. Lofty trees bear
charming flowers, as lowly shrubs do in our northern clime. Arborescent
ferns vie with the palms in poetic beauty, with their elastic, tufted
tops. Bunches of lilac and blossoms of snowy whiteness hang in the air.
Drooping mosses depend like human hair from widespread branches, and
soft, velvety moss carpets the way, with here and there dwarf mimosas
trailing beneath the ferns. Long vines of woody climbers, in deep
olive-green, twine and intertwine among the ranks of stout, aged trees,
breaking out at short distances with pink, blue, and scarlet buds,
rivaling the color of the birds which flash hither and thither like rays
of sunlight breaking through the leafy screen. Now and again the shrill
or plaintive notes of unfamiliar songsters fall upon the ear, mingling
with the cooing of the wood-doves and the low drone of the dragon-fly.
The magnificent arboreal growth of these forests develops itself into
thousands of strange and beautiful forms, stimulated by the constant
humidity of the high temperature.