Circling round the stems of trees in innumerable coils, and grasping
them with a deadly embrace, grow in rich luxuriance countless wild
vines, well meriting the name of murdering sipos. They hang in festoons
from their boughs, and form an intricate tracery of network from tree to
tree,--often of sufficient strength to support the falling monarchs of
the forest when time has wrought decay among their roots.
Here are seen tillandsias and bromeliaceae, like the crowns of huge
pineapples; large climbing arums, with their dark green and arrow-head
shaped leaves, forming fantastic and graceful ornaments swinging in
mid-air; while huge-leaved ferns and other parasites cling to the stems
up to the very highest branches. These are again covered by other
creeping plants; and thus we see parasites on parasites, and on these
parasites again. As we gaze upwards, we see against the clear blue sky
the finely divided foliage, many of the largest of the forest-trees
having leaves as delicate as those of the trembling mimosa: among them
appear the huge palmate leaves of the cecropias, and the oval glossy
ones of the clusias, countless others of intermediate forms adding to
the variety of its scenery,--the bright sunshine playing on the upper
portion of the foliage, while a solemn gloom reigns among the dark
columns which support this wondrous roof of verdure.
In truth, in these woods a thousand objects attract the eye, each a
world of varied vegetation in itself; while the ear listens to the quick
rustling breeze moving the palm-leaves fifty feet or more above the
head,--not like the slow gathering, rushing wind among the pine-trees in
northern climes, but like rapidly running water. Now an immense
butterfly of the most vivid blue comes sailing by to alight on a
neighbouring shrub, when, suddenly folding his azure wings out of sight,
it looks merely like some brown moth spotted with white.
As evening comes on, in some districts a strange confusion of sounds is
heard, as from a crowd of men shouting loudly at a distance. Now it
seems like the barking of dogs, then like that of many voices calling in
different keys, but all loud, varied, excited, full of emphasis; and
yet, after all, the rioters are but the frogs and toads uttering their
usual notes.
The Seringa or India-Rubber Tree.
Along the whole extent of the submerged region on the banks of the
Amazon, beginning at a distance of about fifty miles from Para, as well
as on the shores of many of its tributaries, grows a tree with bark and
foliage not unlike that of the European ash. The trunk, however, shoots
up to an immense height before throwing off branches. It is the
valuable seringa-tree (Siphonia elastica), belonging to the family
Euphorbia, which produces india-rubber. As soon as the waters after the
rainy season have subsided, the natives go forth in parties to procure
the sap with large bowls, clay moulds, pans in which to collect it, and
axes for cutting the wood for their fires. They build their huts in the
neighbourhood of the trees.
The first business is to make gashes in the bark, keeping them open by
pegs, under which they place little clay cups, or shells. Each person
has a certain number of trees under his charge. Every morning he goes
round, and pours what has collected in the cups into a large bowl. The
sap is at first of the consistency of cream, but it soon thickens. The
moulds, which are generally in the form of bottles, are then dipped into
the liquid. As soon as the coating is dried, the mould is again dipped
in, and the same process is gone through for several days. The
substance is at this time hard and white. Meantime fires are made with
the nuts of several species of palms--the inaja and others. These
produce a thick black smoke. The india-rubber is then passed several
times through it. By this means a dark colour and the proper
consistency are obtained. The moulds being broken, the clay is poured
out, and the material is ready for the market.
Sometimes it is formed in large flat pieces; and of late years it has
been preserved in a liquid state in hermetically closed vessels.
The seringa-tree differs greatly from the group of plants which furnish
the caoutchouc of Africa and the West Indies; the latter being the
product of certain species of ficus of a climbing character, and
inferior to the india-rubber of South America.