the thick and rough bark of the Crescentias and the Gustavia.[35] In the midst of this profusion of flowers and fruits, and in the luxuriant intertwinings of the climbing plants, the naturalist often finds it difficult to discover to which stem the different leaves and flowers really belong. A single tree adorned with Paullinias, Bignonias, and Dendrobium, forms a group of plants which, if disentangled and separated from each other, would cover a considerable space of ground.
In the tropics vegetation is generally of a fresher verdure, more luxuriant and succulent, and adorned with larger and more shining leaves than in our northern climates. The "social" plants, which often impart so uniform and monotonous a character to European countries, are almost entirely absent in the Equatorial regions. Trees almost as lofty as our oaks are adorned with flowers as large and as beautiful as our lilies. On the shady banks of the Rio Magdalena in South America, there grows a climbing Aristolochia bearing flowers four feet in circumference, which the Indian boys draw over their heads in sport, and wear as hats or helmets.[36] In the islands of the Indian Archipelago the flower of the Rafflesia is nearly three feet in diameter, and weighs above fourteen pounds.
The great elevation attained in several tropical countries not only by single mountains but even by extensive districts, enables the inhabitants of the torrid zone—surrounded by palms, bananas, and the other beautiful forms proper to those latitudes—to behold also those vegetable forms which, demanding a cooler temperature, would seem to belong to
