ANIMAL LIFE IN THE AUSTRALIAN PRAIRIES.
The first naturalists who explored the littoral of the Australian
continent and its adjacent islands were struck with astonishment at the
sight of the strange and almost monstrous animals they discovered there.
Far more certainly than Columbus had they fallen in with a New World; a
new world of zoology and botany; a world apart, peopled by beings wholly
different from those they had elsewhere studied, and some of which
exhibited a complexity and originality of organization and structure
wholly antagonistic to the received theories of fundamental
characteristics belonging to the various classes of the animal kingdom.
The Australian Fauna, in this respect, can only be compared to that of
Madagascar, which equally bears an impress peculiarly its own, and
presents but a few features of kinship with the Indian Fauna. It is the
latter also that the Australian Fauna most closely approaches, or, to
speak more correctly, from which it least widely diverges.
The great Herbivora--Pachyderms, Ruminants, and Solidungulates--are
absolutely wanting in Australia, as well as the Carnivora properly so
called--Apes and Lemuridæ. The class of Mammals is only represented by
a small number of Cheiroptera and Rodents; by some Amphibia, Phocæ, and
Otidæ (Seals and Bustards), which inhabit the bays carved out of its
long line of coast; by the Marsupials and a very limited order of
Monotremata. The two latter groups are pre-eminently characteristic of
the Australian Fauna; the second belongs exclusively to it. Little,
indeed, is wanting to make it identical with the sub-class of the
Marsupials, represented only in South America by the genera Opossum
didelphis, Hemiurus, and Chironectes, and elsewhere limited to New
Holland, Tasmania, New Guinea, New Zealand, and some other less
important islands of Oceania.
The Marsupials (from the Greek [Greek: marsypos], a purse) owe their
distinctive name to a very curious peculiarity in the organization of
the females. The latter bring their young into the world while still
very feeble, and of themselves fix them to their breasts, where they
remain attached until they have acquired that degree of development
which all other mammals possess at their birth. Generally the breasts
are covered with a loose skin, forming a sort of pouch or purse, in
which the young are concealed, which protects them against climatic
changes, and enables the mother conveniently to carry them everywhere
about with her. Two particular bones, called the marsupial bones,
attached to the pubis, and placed amidst the abdominal muscles, support
this pouch. They assist, says Professor Owen, in producing a compression
of the mammary gland, necessary for the alimentation of a peculiarly
feeble offspring, and they defend the abdominal viscera from the
pressure of the young as they increase in size, during their mammary or
marsupial existence, and still more when they return to the pouch for
temporary shelter.
The marsupials present, moreover, in the different families composing
the order, a great diversity of organization. Most of them are
herbivorous or frugivorous; but there are some which prefer animal
nourishment, and which, in their habits as well as in the structure of
their jaws and their digestive apparatus, closely approach the
carnivora.
The order of which I am speaking includes some animals of great size.
Such is the Great Kangaroo (_Macropus giganteus_), which generally
measures about seven and a half feet in length from the nose to the tip
of the tail, the tail being rather more than three feet in length, and
fully twelve inches in circumference at the base. In its erect sitting
posture, when it rests on its hind-legs and the root of its tail as on a
tripod, its height amounts to about fifty inches; but when it rises on
its toes to look around, its stature exceeds that of a man. The great
length of its hind-legs is a notable peculiarity; their feet are
provided with only four toes, the central being very long, of great
strength, and terminated in a large and powerful hoof-like nail or claw.
The fore-legs, on the contrary, are very short, and the feet divided
into five toes, each furnished with a short and somewhat hooked claw.
The animal's head is small, with rather pointed ears, and large but
placid eyes; it has a thin and gracefully proportioned neck; so that a
startling discrepancy is observable between the fore and the posterior
parts of the animal, though the general effect is neither ungraceful nor
unpleasing. It should be noticed that the kangaroo never folds his tail
between his legs, which, I may add, are extraordinarily strong. The
thighs are thick, the tarsi long and robust. He only walks on all fours
when hotly pressed, and then his appearance is decidedly ungainly. In
escaping from an enemy he rears himself upright, skims the plain with
bounding leaps, and in a few minutes leaves behind him the swiftest
horse or dog. But if all avenues of retreat be closed to him, he plants
himself firmly against a tree or a rock and fights with obstinate
courage, ripping up his assailants with his potent hind-feet, like a
stag with his horns or a wild boar with his tusks.
The diet of the kangaroo is essentially "vegetarian;" he lives upon
leaves, herbs, and roots, and employs his fore-paws, like the Rodents,
to carry his food to his mouth. The animal's habits are mild and
inoffensive. They roamed very peacefully about the Australian prairies
before the new continent was opened up to European enterprise; having no
other enemies to fear than the natives, who were scattered in small
tribes over a few points of an immense territory. Their chase is now
one of the favourite amusements of the colonists, who destroy them in
great numbers. They are easily domesticated, and may be regarded as
already acclimatized in Europe, where, it is hoped, they may prove of
great utility. The flesh of the tame Kangaroo is very good, but that of
the wild animal is still better. Their skin, covered with a thick hair
of an uniformly gray colour, may be adapted to various purposes.
The genus comprehends several species of very different dimensions: as,
the Great Kangaroo, already mentioned; the Woolly or Red Kangaroo (_M.
laniger_), which rather exceeds it in size; and the Potoroo, which is
larger than a rat.
[Illustration: LARGE-BROWED WOMBAT (_Phascolomys latifrons_).]
I must cite, besides the Kangaroos, as the most remarkable types of the
Australian Marsupials, the Phascolomys, the Phascolarctos, the
Phalangas, and the Thylacynas.
The Phascolomys, like the kangaroo, has been introduced into Europe,
where he seems to be perfectly acclimatized, and specimens may be seen
both in the London Zoological Gardens and the Jardin Zoologique of
Paris. He is better known by his native name of the Wombat (_Phascolomys
Wombat_), and was first discovered by Bass, the gallant explorer and
surgeon, whose name is indissolubly connected with the bright deeds of
Australian discovery. The large-browed wombat might, at first sight, be
mistaken for a small bear. His loins are thick, his limbs short, his
hair coarse--thickly set on the loins, back, and head, thinly scattered
about the belly--and of a light, shining sandy-brown. It is difficult to
say why he is surnamed _latifrons_, for his forehead is no larger than
that of other animals of his family; and, at all events, he exhibits, by
way of compensation, an extraordinary extent of surface in the hinder
parts, which, as they are utterly deficient in tail, present a very
grotesque appearance. He burrows like the badger, and on the Australian
continent never quits his retreat until night sets in. He lives on herbs
and roots. The natives roast his flesh, and esteem it a viand of no
ordinary excellence.
The Phascolarctos, or Koala (_Phascolarctos cinereus_), is closely
allied to the wombat. He is strongly but clumsily made, with robust
limbs and powerful claws, which he employs in clinging to the branches
of the trees where he chiefly makes his home. However, he frequently
visits _terra firma_, and burrows with great ease; concealing himself in
a torpid state in his subterranean retreat during the cold season. His
fore-feet have each five toes, of which two are opposed to the other
three--a circumstance noted in no other mammal. He has no tail, like the
wombat. His coat is a bluish-gray fur, very thick and extremely soft,
darkest on the back, and very pale under the throat and belly. An
elongated nose looks as if it were tipped with black leather. The eyes
are round and dark; the ears almost hidden in the plenitude of fur. By
day he is a drowsy and, sooth to say, a stupid animal; but at night he
wakes up into a more active state. He feeds upon the fresh young tops of
trees, selecting their blossoms and young shoots; and though in
appearance resembling the Phalanga, in habits seems closely allied to
the Sloth.
The _Phalangas_ form the typical genus of the tribe of Phalangistins,
which comprehends, in addition, the genera _Trichosura_, _Pseudochira_,
and _Dromicia_. Several species are met with in Malaysia, but they
chiefly belong to the Australian Fauna. They live chiefly in trees,
feeding on various kinds of small animals, insects, eggs, and fruits,
which they grasp between their fore-paws, and so bring to their mouth.
Their appearance may be imagined by putting together a rather short head
with short ears and short woolly fur; a squirrel-like body and long
prehensile tail, sometimes completely covered with hair: the body
measures about twenty-six inches, and the tail about fifteen inches. The
two principal species are the Sooty Phalanga (_Phalangista fuliginosa_),
found in Van Diemen's Land, and named in reference to its smoky black
fur; and the Vulpine Phalanga, or Vulpine Opossum (_P. vulpina_), widely
distributed over Australia, and having a fox-like character about his
head. The Flying Phalangas are also allied to this genus.
The _Thylacyni_ are distinguished from the Opossums by the hind-feet
having no thumb, by a hairy and non-prehensile tail, and by having two
incisors less to each jaw. Only one species is known to exist in
Australia,[142] where it is called the "Tasmanian Wolf," and sometimes
"Tiger" and "Hyæna." It resembles a wolf in many respects, but its
hinder parts are sensibly higher than its fore; its elongated muzzle is
almost cylindrical in shape, and very thick; and his tail, broad at the
base, tapers away to a fine point. The colour is gray, striped with
black across the hinder limbs.
Of the _Thylacynus cynocephalus_ M. Paul Gervais furnishes the following
description:[143]--
"There exists in Tasmania an animal of carnivorous habits almost as
large as a wolf, and whose external forms at the first glance do not
differ sufficiently from those of the latter to prevent one from
including him in the family _Canidæ_; but this member of the Carnivora,
though he has also the wolf's appetite, and commits havoc in the same
manner among the flocks of the colonists, belongs, like most of the
Australian Mammals, to the sub-class of Marsupials. There is also much
analogy, in many of its osteological characteristics, with the extinct
genera of the Hyenodons and Ptérodons; but the latter are in reality
Monodelphia, and should be ranged among the Carnivora properly so
called. The English settlers in Van Diemen's Land give the thylacynus
the name of _Zebra Wolf_, because it has, in effect, the greater portion
of the dorsal region and the base of the tail marked with transversal
brown lines, like zebra stripes. This carnivorous animal is also their
_Dog-headed Opossum_.
[Illustration: THYLACYNUS CYNOCEPHALUS.]
"Allied to other Marsupials by the totality of its anatomical
characteristics, it is nevertheless easy to distinguish generically; in
the first place, it is of great size, and its exterior recalls that of
the Wolf, though it has a longer head and a tail garnished with very
short hair; the latter is, at the same time, a little depressed.
Moreover, it numbers forty-six teeth, with wide intervals between each.
It is digitigrade: it has five toes on the fore, and four toes on its
hinder feet; its marsupial bones are simply rudimental."
If there be one group of animals more than another whose unforeseen
discovery has succeeded in astonishing and embarrassing zoologists, it
is assuredly that which has been designated by the name of
_Monotremata_. It is the lowest order of vertebrated animals, the very
bottom of the scale, approximating in many characteristic points to the
family of Birds. The pelvis, it is true, is furnished with marsupial
bones, but these animals possess no pouch. The skull is smooth, the
brain-case proportionately very small, the snout much prolonged, while
the jaws have neither teeth nor soft movable lips. The shoulder-bones do
not resemble those of a mammal, but in some respects the scapular joint
of the bird; in other respects, that of the reptiles. The feet have five
toes, each armed with a long nail; and, in addition, the hind-feet are
provided with a perforated spur-like weapon, which is connected with a
gland. The genus derives its distinctive name from the circumstance that
the orifices of the urinary canals, the intestinal and the generative
canals, open, as in birds, into a common vent. The mammary glands, of
which only one exists on each side, are not furnished with nipples, but
open by simple slits on each side of the abdomen.
This order includes two families: the _Ornithorhynchidæ_ and the
_Echidnidæ_, both belonging to Australia and Tasmania. The former are
aquatic in their habits, the latter terrestrial.
The Echidna (_Echidna Hystrix_), or Porcupine Ant-Eater, resembles the
Porcupine in his general appearance and coat of spines, the Ant-Eater in
his snout, mouth, and long lubricated tongue. His legs are very short
and thick, and each is furnished with five broad rounded toes; the four
toes are armed with a long blunt claw, but on the hind-feet one toe is
without a claw, two are short and blunt, and one is of great length,
rather curved, and sharp pointed. He measures about twelve inches, and
all over the upper-parts of the body and tail is thickly beset with
formidable spines, very sharp and strong; over the head, legs, and
under-parts with bristly hair of a deep brown colour. His short tail is
covered with perpendicular spines. Digging up the ground with his keen
claws he disburies a host of insects, which he rolls over his long red
cylindrical tongue. He is very timid, and when any one approaches him,
coils himself up in a ball, like a hedgehog.
[Illustration: 1. Ornithorhynchus. 2. Echidna.]
The _Ornithorhynchus_ ("Bird-beaked"), or _Duck-Billed Platypus_, is
another extraordinary animal, which seems to serve as the connecting
link between the aquatic birds and the mammalia. His length is about
twenty inches; his body, long and flattened like an otter's, is covered
with a thick soft fur, moderately dark brown above and whitish beneath;
his tail is flat and obtuse; his feet are furnished with a membrane that
unites the toes; and he has an elongated, enlarged, and flattened muzzle
like a duck's beak. It is evident, therefore, that he can live only on
soft food, and that his habits must be aquatic; and hence we find him
burrowing in the banks of the streams, and groping for his food, like a
duck, among the mud and water. The settlers term him characteristically
"the River-Mole."
A word of allusion must now be permitted to the _Petrogale_, a genus of
the Kangaroo family, described by Dr. Gray. The Brush-tailed Rock
Wallaby (_P. penicillata_) has a rough long fur, of a dusky brown hue,
tinged with red and gray; a white streak passes down the middle of the
throat; his tail is very black, like a raven's plumage, long, and
furnished with thick hairs forming a brush. The male is about three feet
and a half long. Another species is called the Short-Eared Rock Kangaroo
(_P. brachiotis_). Both are excessively wild and shy in their habits,
frequenting in the day-time the most inaccessible rocks and the loftiest
mountain-peaks, and descending, at the approach of twilight, to feed in
the retired and grassy valleys. They flock together in such numbers as
to form well-beaten paths along the mountain-sides, and leap from crag
to crag with all the agility of the chamois.
* * * * *
The Ornithological Fauna of Australia and the islands of Oceania is
incomparably richer than the Mammalogical Fauna, and includes several
species of the most dazzling plumage; but nearly all these species
inhabit the forests which cover a part of the littoral and probably of
the interior. However we must signalize, as peculiar to the Prairies, a
great number of the _Brevipennes_ (_i.e._, Short-wings), the Emu or Emeu
(_Dromaius Novæ Hollandiæ_); two Palmipeds, the Black Swan and the
Cereopsis; and, finally, a bird, the only one of its order, almost as
much of a paradox among bipeds as is the ornithorhynchus among
quadrupeds, the Apteryx.
The Emu is allied to the cassowary; he is nearly equal to the ostrich in
bulk, but has a thicker body, shorter legs, and a shorter neck. He
measures more than seven feet in length; his plumage exhibits a mixture
of brown and gray; his beak is black, his head covered with feathers; he
has real wings, though they are of so small a size as to be useless for
flight; they are covered with feathers like the rest of the body, from
which, when the bird is not in motion, they can hardly be discerned.
Internally, the emu differs, it is said, from all other species,
particularly in having no gizzard, and in the extremely small size of
his liver.
Emus are killed, according to Captain (now Sir George) Grey, in
precisely the same manner as kangaroos, but as they are more prized by
the natives, a greater degree of excitement prevails when an emu is
slain; shout succeeds shout, and the distant natives take up the cry
until it is sometimes re-echoed for miles. The feast which follows the
death, however, is a very exclusive one, for the flesh is much too
delicious to be made a common article of food. Heavy penalties are
accordingly pronounced against young men, and unauthorized persons, who
venture to touch it; and these, invariably, are rigidly enforced.[144]
Every schoolboy knows the famous quotation in his Latin grammar which
tells of a
"Rara avis, simillimaque nigro cygno."
A _Black Swan_ is no longer a "rara avis." The species (_Cygnus
atratus_) belongs to New Holland and Tasmania, and is of the same size
as the common swan. His plumage is wholly black, with the exception of
the primary pens, which are white; his beak is red, and so is the
featherless skin surrounding it at the base. He has been successfully
acclimatized in Europe, and ornaments the lakes and streams of many
English parks.
The Cereopsis, or Cerefaced Goose, of New Holland, is a Palmiped genus,
about the size of a common goose, which, in general appearance, he
resembles, except that his legs are longer, averaging from two and a
half to three feet. The plumage is of a dingy gray. A large patch of
dull white occupies the top of the head; the quill-feathers, both of the
wings and tail, are of a dusty black. His voice has a hoarse deep clang,
like that of a storm-bell. He usually weighs from seven to ten pounds,
and makes an excellent dish for an Australian Christmas table.
Specimens may be seen both in the Zoological Gardens of London and
Paris.
[Illustration: APTERYX AUSTRALIS.]
The _Apteryx Australis_, or Wingless Emu--the _Kiwi_ of the New
Zealanders--somewhat resembles a penguin in form, and stands about two
feet in height. The only living specimen in Europe lives, I believe, in
the London Zoological Gardens. As it does not appear to rank, in
scientific classification, with any other family or genus, naturalists
have erected it into a distinct order--the _Nullipennes_, or Wingless.
The wings of the apteryx are literally rudiments; a mere stump,
terminated by a hook. None of his bones are hollow; he has no abdominal
air-cells; his feathers have no accessory plume; his feet have a short
and elevated hind-toe; his eyes are small; he feeds on insects; and his
habits are nocturnal. He is a bird of great physical power, and runs
with ostrich-like swiftness; taking refuge, when pursued, in burrows,
hollow trees, and the clefts of the rocks. His cry resembles a loud
whistle, and the natives entrap the bird by imitating it. When the
female has been taken, the male is easily caught, owing to his
reluctance to leave her. He will, however, defend himself vigorously
with his spurs.
The Erpetological Fauna of Australia, and, in general, of Oceania, is
very poor, and comprehends no great species. I may notice a genus of
lizards, the Chlamydosaurus, discovered by Allan Cunningham, the
naturalist attached to Captain King's expedition, about 1820. It
measures about seventeen inches in length, of which twelve inches are
apportioned to the tail; is of a yellowish-brown colour; has a large
head, with prominent eyes; and a membraneous ruff or tippet round its
neck, covering its shoulders, and when expanded spreading about five
inches in the form of an open umbrella. If attacked or terrified, it
elevates the frill or ruff and makes for a tree; where, if overtaken, it
throws itself upon a stem, raising its head and chest as high as it can
upon the fore-legs, then doubling its tail underneath the body, and
displaying a very formidable set of teeth from the concavity of its
large frill, it boldly faces any opponent, biting fiercely whatever is
presented to it, and even venturing so far in its rage as to fairly make
a fierce charge at its enemy.
Venomous serpents are numerous: particularly the _Hydrophis_, or
Water-Snake, very common in the neighbouring seas, where it feeds on
fishes. The back part of the body and tail being much compressed, and
vertically raised, endows it with the capacity of swimming.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
BOOK IV.
_THE FORESTS._
CHAPTER I.
THE VIRGIN FORESTS.
"The noonday sun
Now shone upon the Forest, one vast mass
Of mingling shade....
Like restless serpents, clothed
In rainbow and in fire, the parasites,
Starred with ten thousand blossoms, flow around
The gray trunks, and, as gamesome infants' eyes.
With gentle meanings, and most innocent wiles,
Fold their beams round the hearts of those that love,
These twine their tendrils with the wedded boughs
Uniting their close union; the woven leaves
Make net-work of the dark blue light of day,
And the night's noontide clearness, mutable
As shapes in the weird clouds."
SHELLEY.
In all parts of the world some regions exist where, owing to a concourse
of favourable circumstances, the productive forces of Nature have been
able to manifest themselves with an exceptional energy--where vegetable
life, in particular, has acquired an extraordinary development. The rich
soil is covered, over more or less extensive areas, with vivacious
plants, robust and of great stature, which closely rooted, one against
another, with intertwining and overarching boughs, sustaining by their
bulk and shading with their foliage other and weaker plants, have formed
in the course of innumerable ages those masses of umbrageous gloom
called Forests.
These, undoubtedly, are one of the grandest and most impressive
monuments of the Creative Power; one, I may add, of the most eloquent,
for there is nothing in all Nature whose study better repays the
student, or which more largely abounds in important lessons.
The virgin forest, moreover, is one of the sanctuaries of Nature, where
her mysteries are seldom profaned by man. There life reveals itself, and
moves at liberty, under an infinite variety of forms. It is the asylum
of a multitude of animals of all classes, which find therein, united,
the two essential conditions of existence--shelter and nourishment.
Without the difficult approaches, the obscurity and the profound depth
of the forests, says a naturalist, what would become of the species of
mammals, birds, and reptiles, against which man wages incessant war?
Nature, then, seems to have provided these immense reservoirs to prevent
their species from being totally annihilated. Independently of the trees
which constitute the forests, a host of other plants make them their
exclusive _habitat_; thence the specific and eminently characteristic
names--such as _Sylvestris_, _Sylvaticus_, _Nemorosus_--imposed upon a
great number among them. Such plants are distinguished from their
congeners by the great dimensions of their stems; but, on the other
hand, they do not possess the brilliantly-coloured flowers which adorn
the plants of the mountains and the plains always exposed to the action
of the solar light.
The forests, moreover, offer for the botanist this remarkable and
singularly precious circumstance, that they form natural collections of
trees of the same species, or of several species of the same genus, or
at least of the same family; so that their limits circumscribe the
_habitat_ of these grand vegetables, and permit us to determine with
ease their geographical distribution.
[Illustration: THE VIRGIN FOREST OF THE GABOON.]
The forests fill an important function in the general economy of the
globe, by the influence which they exercise upon the mean temperature
and the other meteorological conditions of the regions they shelter. All
other things being equal, the temperature of well-wooded countries is
perceptibly less elevated and more uniform than that of dry and open
districts. The amount of humidity which is retained on the surface of
the soil by wide-spread woods is considerable; it results from the
lesser evaporation of the waters, the abundant transpiration of the
leaves, and the heavy rains which inundate the forests during the
tropical summer. Forests, like mountains, seem to attract the clouds. So
the plains which lie on their borders are ever better watered and
fertile than those whose horizon no obstacle encumbers.
Thus, then, in the forests, in this bright and beautiful world of
vegetation, most of the pleasures which man can derive from external
nature are garnered up, and most of the lessons he requires are written.
All kinds of precious grace and teaching, says Mr. Ruskin,[145] are
united in this link between the Earth and the Stars: wonderful in
universal adaptation to his need, desire, and discipline; God's daily
preparation of the earth for him, with beautiful means of life. "First,
a carpet to make it soft for him; then, a coloured fantasy of embroidery
thereon; then, tall spreading of foliage to shade him from sun heat, and
shade also the fallen rain, that it may not dry quickly back into the
clouds, but stay to nourish the springs among the moss. Stout wood to
bear this leafage: easily to be cut, yet tough and light, to make houses
for him, or instruments (lance-shaft, or plough handle, according to his
temper); useless it had been, if harder; useless, if less fibrous;
useless, if less elastic. Winter comes, and the shade of leafage falls
away, to let the sun warm the earth; the strong boughs remain, breaking
the strength of winter winds. The seeds which are to prolong the race,
innumerable according to the need, are made beautiful and palatable,
varied into infinitude of appeal to the fancy of man, or provision for
his service: cold juice, or glowing spice, or balm, or incense,
softening oil, preserving resin, medicine of styptic, febrifuge, or
lulling charm--and all these presented in forms of endless change.
Fragility and force, softness and strength, in all degrees of aspects;
unerring uprightness, as of temple pillars, or undivided wandering of
feeble tendrils on the ground; mighty resistances of rigid arm and limb
to the storms of ages, or wavings to and fro with faintest pulse of
summer streamlet. Roots cleaving the strength of rock, or binding the
transience of the sand; crests basking in sunshine of the desert, or
hiding by dripping spring and lightless cave; foliage for tossing in
entangled fields beneath every wave of ocean--clothing with variegated,
everlasting fibres, the peaks of the trackless mountains, or ministering
at cottage doors to every gentlest passion and simplest joy of
humanity."
Considered in their physiological aspect, it is evident that the forests
have played, from the remotest ages of our planet, a pre-eminently
useful part, by absorbing the carbonic acid with which the atmosphere
was surcharged, fixing the carbon, and restoring to the air a quantity
of oxygen sufficient for the support of animal life, impossible or
rudimentary previous to their creation. And they still serve to maintain
the chemical equilibrium of the atmosphere, by incessantly refeeding it
with the oxygen which the respiration of animals and the phenomena of
combustion have transformed into carbonic acid.
* * * * *
Forests formerly abounded in Europe. In Gallia, Germania, Illyria,
Sarmatia, whole provinces were covered with immense woods of ancient and
patriarchal trees. Civilization has destroyed them in great part, and
often without discernment. At the present day few forests in Europe
remain untouched. They are rare in Western Asia, in Central Asia, and in
Northern Asia; rarer still in the Chinese empire, where the population
is denser than in any other country of the world, and where it is the
great object of the policy of the State that not a rood of land shall be
lost for the culture of plants valuable as food or for industrial
purposes. It is only to the south of the Himalaya Mountains, in the
still savage and scantily peopled regions of India and Indo-China, that
one sees the great vegetables of the Tropical Zone agglomerated in
compact masses of considerable extent.
In Africa, forests of any size or density only exist in the mountainous
countries and towards the western littoral; as, notably, in the Soudan,
the Senegal, in Guinea, at the Gaboon, and on the coasts of Angola and
Benguela. In North America, civilization has accomplished, in less than
three centuries, the work which in Europe occupied a much longer period.
The magnificent forests which spread their awful shades--their vast
luxuriance of gloom--over the surface of this continent have fallen
before the axe of the pioneer. Only at a few points is realized the fine
picture of the poet; only in a few untrodden recesses still flourishes
the primeval forest, where--
"The murmuring pines and the hemlocks,
Bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight,
Stand like Druids of eld, with voices sad and prophetic,
Stand like harpers hoar, with beards that rest on their bosoms."[146]
When Captain Palliser's expedition attempted to reach the head waters of
the North Thompson from the sources of the North Saskatchewan River, the
leader encountered a forest-growth so dense, and so encumbered with
fallen timber, that it proved an insurmountable obstacle. Viscount
Milton and Mr. Cheadle, in their adventurous journey across the Rocky
Mountains to British Columbia, were involved in one of these
wildernesses, and with difficulty effected a passage. "No one," they
remark,[147] "who has not seen a primeval forest, where trees of
gigantic size have grown and fallen undisturbed for ages, can form any
idea of the collection of timber, or the impenetrable character of such
a region. There were pines and thujas of every size--the patriarch of
300 feet in height standing alone, or thickly-clustering groups of young
ones struggling for the vacant place of some prostrate giant. The fallen
trees lay piled around, forming barriers often six or eight feet high on
every side: trunks of huge cedars, moss-grown and decayed, lay
half-buried in the ground on which others as mighty had recently fallen;
trees still green and living, recently blown down, blocking the view
with the walls of earth held in their matted roots; living trunks, dead
trunks, rotten trunks; dry, barkless trunks, and trunks moist and green
with moss; bare trunks, and trunks with branches--prostrate, reclining,
horizontal, propped up at different angles; timber of every size, in
every stage of growth and decay, in every possible position, entangled
in every possible combination. The swampy ground was densely covered
with American dog-wood, and elsewhere with thickets of the aralea, a
tough-stemmed trailer, with leaves as large as those of the
rhubarb-plant, and growing in many places as high as a man's shoulders.
Both stem and leaves are covered with sharp spines, which pierce your
clothes as you force your way through the tangled growth, and make the
legs and hands of the pioneers scarlet from the inflammation of myriads
of punctures."
Far grander the scene, however--far richer in form and colour--which
meets our gaze in the stupendous forest growth still covering the basins
of the Amazon and the Orinoco. As a companion to the foregoing picture,
we borrow one of this brighter and more wonderful region as painted with
equal truth and vigour by Mr. Bates:--[148]
"The ground was thickly carpeted with Lycopodiums,[149] but it was also
encumbered with masses of vegetable _débris_ and a thick coating of dead
leaves. Fruits of many kinds were scattered about, amongst which were
numerous species of beans, some of the pods a foot long, flat and
leathery in texture, others hard as stone. In one place might be seen a
quantity of large empty wooden vessels; such they appeared to be, but in
reality they had fallen from the Sapucaya tree. They are called
_Monkey's Drinking-cups_ (Cuyas de Macaco), and are the capsules of the
nuts sold under this appellation in Covent Garden Market. The top of the
vessel is pierced with a circular hole, in which a natural lid fits
easily. When the nuts ripen this lid becomes loosened, and down falls
the heavy shell with a crash, scattering the nuts over the ground. The
tree[150] which bears this extraordinary burthen is of immense height.
It is closely allied to the Brazil-nut tree,[151] whose seeds are
likewise enclosed in large wooden vessels, but these are without lids,
and fall entire to the ground. It is at least 120 feet high, and rises
to the noble stature of 100 feet before it throws off any branches. From
twelve to twenty of these sweet edible nuts lie in a pod. The monkeys
are very partial to them, and will patiently sit for hours hammering at
a capsule with a stone, in order to open it; and as soon as they have
succeeded, the on-lookers rush to the spot, to purloin as many as they
can. The natives assail the quarreling party with stones, a proceeding
which incites the monkeys to revenge themselves by a discharge of nuts.
By this means the Indians load their boats without trouble, and the
monkeys are left to make a fresh foray."
In his forest wanderings, Mr. Bates was especially attracted by the
colossal trees. He says that, on the whole, they had not remarkably
thick stems; the great and uniform height to which they grow without
throwing off a branch is a much more noticeable feature than their
thickness; but at intervals he paused before a veritable giant. Only one
of these huge patriarchs of the woods can flourish within a given space;
it monopolizes the domain, and none but humble individuals can nestle
within its shadow. The cylindrical trunks of these larger trees were
generally about twenty to twenty-five feet in circumference. Von
Martius, another Brazilian traveller, mentions having measured trees in
the Pará district, belonging to various species (Symphonia coccinea,
Lecythis spirula, and Cratæva Tapia), which were fifty to sixty feet in
girth at the point where they become cylindrical! The height of the vast
column-like stems could not be less than 100 feet from the ground to
their lowest branch. The total height of the Pao d'Ano[152] and the
Massaranduba, stem and crown together, may be computed at from 180 to
200 feet. Where one of them stands, the vast canopy of leafiness rises
above the other forest trees like a domed cathedral above the minor
buildings of a city.
A very curious feature in these trees is the growth of buttress-shaped
projections around the lower part of their stems. The spaces between
these buttresses, which may be compared to thin walls of wood, form
spacious chambers, like stalls in a stable; some of them large enough to
hold half-a-dozen persons. "The purpose of these structures," says Mr.
Bates, "is as obvious at the first glance, as that of the similar props
of brickwork which support a high wall. They are not peculiar to one
species, but are common to most of the larger forest trees. Their nature
and manner of growth are explained when a series of young trees of
different ages is examined. It is then seen that they are the roots,
which have raised themselves ridge-like out of the earth; growing
gradually upwards as the increasing height of the tree required
augmented support. Thus they are plainly intended to sustain the massive
crown and trunk in these crowded forests, where lateral growth of the
roots in the earth is rendered difficult by the number of competitors."
Among other remarkable inhabitants of the Brazilian wilderness, we may
name the lofty Moira-tingu,[153] the Samaüma,[154] and the Massaranduba
or Cow tree.[155] The Eriodendron Samaüma, or Silk-cotton tree, holds in
the New World the same position as the Bombax in the Old. It rises to an
enormous stature without branches, and then spreads out a glorious mass
of foliage. The bark is light in colour; and the capsule pod contains a
large quantity of down, of a brown tint, and exquisite silky softness.
The Massaranduba is also called the Palo de Vacca, the Arbor de Lacte,
the Galactodendron utile, or the Cow tree. Its bark furnishes an
abundant supply of milk as pleasant to drink as that of the cow. If
exposed to the air it thickens into a glue, which is excessively
tenacious, and often employed to cement broken crockery. The tree has a
wild, strange appearance, owing to its deeply scored, reddish, and
rugged bark, a decoction of which is used as a red dye for cloth.
Did our readers ever hear of the Pashiúba, or bulging-stemmed palm?[156]
It is not one of the tallest kinds, for its height, when full grown,
seldom exceeds forty feet; the leaves are somewhat less drooping, and
the leaflets broader, than in other species; but if less beautiful, it
is, perhaps, far more remarkable. Its roots grow above ground, radiating
from the trunk at an elevation of ten or twelve feet, so that the tree
seems to be supported on stilts; and when it is old, a person can stand
upright amongst the roots with the perpendicular stem wholly above his
head! About midway, this stem bulges out in a circular swelling, which
gives it its distinctive name. The roots closely resemble straight rods,
but they are studded with stout thorns, whilst the trunk of the Pashiúba
is perfectly smooth.
It is in the vast primeval forests of Central and Southern America, and
in the leafy wildernesses of the great East Indian islands--Borneo,
Sumatra, Java, Madagascar--that man may still contemplate in all its
savage majesty the prodigious Flora of the Tropics. These, too, are the
haunts of many remarkable animals--mammals, and birds, and
reptiles--which are there comparatively safe from the pitiless
persecution of the hunter and the trapper.
To obtain an idea--which, however, can only be very vague and
imperfect--of the strange and imposing spectacle and the unexpected
scenes which at every step astonish the traveller in the great Tropical
woodlands, we must study the descriptions of those few but richly
endowed adventurers who, after exploring them with the enlightened
curiosity of science, have been able to embody the results in language
worthy of the subject.
In the foremost rank of those who have possessed the twofold
qualification of scientific knowledge and descriptive power, we must
place the illustrious Humboldt. His works are a rich storehouse from
which later writers have freely borrowed the materials of their essays.
In reference to the phrases " Virgin Forest," "Primeval Forest," he has
some judicious observations:--Ought we to call, he says, by either of
these appellations every kind of wild thick wood, encumbered with
vigorous trees, upon which man has never laid his destructive hand? In
that case they would be appropriate in a number of very different
countries, under the Temperate, ay, and even under the Frigid Zone. But
if we intend them to designate the impenetrability of an almost
boundless forest, the impossibility of clearing a path with the
pioneer's axe between serried ranks of trees, not one of which is less
than from eight to ten feet in diameter, such virgin forests belong
exclusively to tropical regions. We must not believe, however, according
to the ordinary story in Europe, in the creeping parasitical lianas
which, by the interlacement and entanglement of their branches, render
the equatorial forests impenetrable. The lianas form but a comparatively
insignificant portion of the underwood. The principal obstacle is found
in the arborescent plants, which leave not a space uncovered, and this,
too, in a country where all vegetables spreading over the soil become
ligneous. If a traveller, as soon as he arrives in a tropical clime,
whether in the continent or the islands, believes, even before he has
penetrated inland, that he is transported to the heart of the virgin
forests, his error simply originates in his impatience to realize a
long-cherished desire. All Tropical forests are not virgin forests.
The true virgin forests, notwithstanding the recent explorations of
Wallace, Bates, and Agassiz, are very imperfectly known; because it is,
in truth, perfectly impossible to survey them in every direction, on
account of their vast extent and astonishing impenetrability. When we
are told by the traveller that he opened for himself a path with his
trusty hatchet, we readily understand that he achieved his boasted
victory in places where the obstacles were reduced to feeble lianas and
brushwood of no great density, and that he turned aside from the massive
barriers formed by the closely-planted trunks of colossal trees. Than
these mighty vegetable Anakim, nothing, says a naturalist, is more
imperfectly known in botany. The stems of most being bare and branchless
up to a considerable height, their fructification is frequently beyond
the reach of man. In vain would he level them by their base: their
summits remain suspended by the inter-tanglement of the neighbouring
summits, and like so many Tantaluses, our travellers see themselves
shunned by the fruits which their eyes devour. The rivers, those "tracks
which march" through the leafy, woody depths, and the tortuous paths
trodden down by generations of wild beasts in their quest after new
pastures, after fresh hunting-grounds, or fountains to slake their
thirst, are the only roads which can be pursued by the explorer.
[Illustration: THE VIRGIN FOREST IN BRAZIL.]
As far as concerns their botanical composition, the virgin forests of
the Tropics are distinguished from those of cold and temperate regions
by general characters which it will, perhaps, be useful to indicate. If,
for example, we adopt as our standard of comparison the European forest,
we there remark, in the first place, the complete absence of trees
belonging to the important groups of Acotyledons and Monocotyledons,
and, in consequence, of the superb palms and elegant arboreal ferns of
tropical countries. Or, considering only the Dicotyledonous plants, we
see again that, in lands bordering on the Equator, there is scarcely a
family of this class which does not furnish its contingent of woody
plants, offering most frequently, with forms of infinite variety,
clearly displayed and brilliant flowers, remarkable either for their
beauty or their fragrance,--
"Sweet as Sabæan odours from the shores
Of Araby the Blest;"
while our trees are comprised in a small number of natural groups, and
present in general very opposite features; as, for instance, an almost
uniform character or aspect, and flowers scarcely visible and of little
elegance.
It suffices to name the families of the Coniferæ and the Amentaceæ,
which compose the greater portion of the Flora of our forests. Moreover,
as Humboldt observes, in the Temperate Zone, particularly in Europe and
the north of Asia, certain species of trees (_plantæ sociales_) grow
together, and form of themselves forests which we may designate by their
specific name. In the forests of oaks, firs, and birches which cover the
countries of the North, in the forests of limes of the East, one unique
species of Amentaceæ, Coniferæ, or Tiliaceæ generally prevails. This
uniform society is foreign to the Tropical forests. The infinite variety
of flowers which expand in these _Hylææ_ do not permit us to ask of what
the virgin forests are composed. An innumerable quantity of different
families stand side by side; even in the most confined spaces it is rare
to see trees of the same nature re-united. Every day, as the traveller
advances, he discovers new forms; oftentimes the outline of the leaf and
the ramification of a tree attract his attention, without his being able
to distinguish the flowers.
There is yet another feature, more striking still, and more general than
those previously mentioned, which broadly distinguishes the arborescent
vegetation of the Tropics from that of northern climates. Here the
plants, exposed annually to an often intense degree of cold which lasts
for several months, experience a kind of suspension of their vital
activity, cease to flower and to fructify, and entirely shed their
foliage; the resinous species are the only exceptions to this rule. In
the neighbourhood of the Equator, on the contrary, it is during the
hottest, driest season that vegetation suffers; then the herbaceous
plants and bushes of the plains die down; but the great trees of the
virgin forests are hardly affected; their foliage incessantly renews
itself; their branches are at all times loaded with fruits and flowers,
and to the wayfarer's eyes they present the glorious spectacle of an
eternal freshness, of a life which never wanes.
Compared with these great points of difference, common to all the virgin
forests of the Tropics, the peculiar features resulting from the
botanical constitution which distinguishes more or less exactly one
region from another, have, as the reader will understand, but a
secondary importance.
With the exception of a few countries which possess a Flora _sui
generis_--such, for example, as Madagascar and Australia--the same
aspects, the same general forms are almost everywhere reproduced.
More distinctive differences may be remarked, at the first glance, in
the animal life which peoples the forests of the different quarters of
the world; but yet these animals everywhere display the same habits. The
great majority of the insects and the birds, the apes, the squirrels,
and, in general, all the arboreal animals, awake and put themselves in
motion at the first glimpse of day, and animate the forest with their
murmurs, their songs, their utterances, their lively sports and
frolicsome gambols.
I borrow from the entertaining pages of an English traveller the
following description of the diurnal cycle of phenomena which revolves
in the depths of a virgin forest.[157]
In the early dawn the sky is invariably cloudless; the heavy dew or the
previous night's rain, which lay on the moist foliage, becoming quickly
dissipated by the glowing sun, which, rising straight out of the east,
mounts rapidly towards the zenith. All nature is fresh, new leaves and
flower-buds expanding rapidly. Some mornings a single tree will appear
in flower amidst what was the preceding evening a uniform green mass of
forest--a dome of blossom suddenly created as if by magic. The birds are
all active; from the wild fruit trees, not far off, we hear the shrill
yelping of the Tucano (_Ramphastos vitellinus_). Small flocks of parrots
flow over on most mornings at a great height, appearing in distinct
relief against the blue sky, always two by two chattering to each other,
the pairs being separated by regular intervals. Their bright colours,
however, are not discernible at such a height.
Towards two o'clock the heat rapidly increases, and every voice of bird
or mammal grows hushed; only in the trees sounds at intervals the harsh
whirr of a cicada. The leaves, so moist and fresh in early morning, now
become lax and drooping; the flowers shed their petals. On most days in
June or July a heavy shower will fall some time in the afternoon,
producing a most welcome coolness. The approach of the rain clouds takes
place after a uniform fashion very interesting to observe. First, the
cool sea-breeze, which commenced to blow about ten o'clock, and which
increases in force with the increasing power of the sun, flags, and
finally dies away. The heat and electric tension of the atmosphere then
grows almost insupportable. Languor and uneasiness seize on every one;
even the denizens of the forest betraying it by their motions. White
clouds rising in the east gather into cumuli, with an increasing
blackness along their lower portions. The whole eastern horizon becomes
almost suddenly black, and this darkness spreads upwards, obscuring the
"orb of day."
Then through the forest hurtles a mighty wind, swaying the lofty
tree-tops; a vivid flash of lightning bursts forth, then breaks a crash
of thunder, and down streams the deluging rain. Such storms soon cease,
leaving bluish-black motionless clouds in the sky until night. Meantime
all nature is refreshed; but heaps of flower-leaves and fallen petals
lie under the trees. Towards evening life revives again, and the ringing
uproar is resumed from bush and tree. The following morning the sun
again rises in a cloudless sky, and so the cycle is completed; spring,
summer, and autumn, as it were, in one tropical day. The days are more
or less like this throughout the year in this country. A little
difference exists between the dry and wet seasons; but generally the dry
season, which lasts from July to December, is varied with showers; and
the wet, from January to June, with sunny days.
"It results from this," says Mr. Bates, "that the periodical phenomena
of plants and animals do not take place at about the same time in all
species, or in the individuals of any given species, as they do in
temperate countries. Of course there is no hybernation, nor, as the dry
season is not excessive, is there any summer torpidity as in some
tropical countries. Plants do not flower or shed their leaves, nor do
birds moult, pair, or breed simultaneously. In Europe, a woodland scene
has its spring, its summer, its autumnal, and its winter aspects. In the
equatorial forests the aspect is the same, or nearly so, every day in
the year--budding, flowering, fruiting, and leaf-shedding are always
going on in one species or other. The activity of birds and insects
proceeds without interruption, each species having its own separate
times. The colonies of wasps, for instance, do not die off annually,
leaving only the queens, as in cold climates; but the succession of
generations and colonies goes on incessantly. It is never either spring,
summer, or autumn, but each day is a combination of all three. With the
day and night always of equal length, the atmospheric disturbances of
each day neutralizing themselves before each succeeding morn; with the
sun in its course proceeding mid-way across the sky, and the daily
temperature the same within two or three degrees throughout the year,
how grand in its perfect equilibrium and simplicity is the march of
Nature under the equator!"
Now night comes on, not, as in temperate climes, with a hush and a
silence that are almost breathless, but with a thousand strange and
formidable sounds. In Asia, in Africa, in America, as well as in the
great islands of the Pacific Ocean, the forests and the savannahs
re-echo all night with discordant cries. The branches are torn down with
a crash as the beasts of prey sweep past, and earth resounds beneath
their headlong steps. It is no longer the gay, fresh movement of happy
life which in the golden noon of day converts the forest into a
veritable Eden; it is the rush to and fro of scattered animals, pressed
by hunger and thirst, either in flight or pursuit; it is the roar of
rage or the wail of agony; it is, in a word, the mêlée of sharpened
appetites; it is the "Witches' Sabbath" of the savage world, at which no
European, however hardened by the perils of an adventurous career, can
be present for the first time without experiencing a deep emotion of
melancholy and apprehension.
CHAPTER II.
VEGETABLE LIFE IN THE FORESTS OF THE OLD WORLD.
I do not think that in all Europe, nor, indeed, in the entire Temperate
Zone of the Old World, exists such an agglomeration of plants and trees
as may merit the appellation of "primeval" or "virgin forest." At all
events, this forest, if it really exists, will assuredly be composed of
the very trees which we see every day in our own woods, our fields, our
parks, and even in our towns, and which have long ceased to awaken in
us the idea of wild nature. With the woods of Great Britain, France, or
Spain we are all familiar:--
"The beam
Of noon is broken there by chestnut boughs
Down the steep verdant sides; the air
So freshened by the leaping stream, which throws
Eternal showers of spray on the mossed roots
Of trees, and veins of turf, and long dark shoots
Of ivy-plants, and fragrant hanging bells
Of hyacinths, and on late anemones
That muffle its wet banks."[158]
Our poets have sung of the murmurous groves of pines, and the deep dark
beech-woods that clothe with shadows the rounded forms of the
chalk-hills, and the long alleys of blossoming chestnut, fragrant lime,
or sombre yew. Therefore, without losing valuable time in these familiar
shades, without pausing before the oak which the history of a thousand
years has made immortal, let us rapidly traverse the Corsican forests,
where among the twisted leaves of the elms flourishes the gigantic
Larician pine; those of Greece, where thrive the pines of Cephalonia and
Apollo, and the oaks sacred also to the divinity of Delphi and
Dodona--those oaks, dumb to-day, which formerly gave utterance to
oracles not less reverend than those of the Pythoness. We will not even
suffer ourselves to be delayed among the forests of Eastern Europe, of
Asia Minor, and of Persia, where dominate such species as the pine, the
beech, and the chestnut. It is not until we have crossed the Indus--that
mighty river on whose banks halted the legions of Alexander--that the
exuberant vegetation of the Tropical world breaks upon us in all its
glorious verdure and prodigious richness, though confined to a
comparatively limited area.
The wooded region of the western Ghauts, from Goa to Cape Camorin,
exhibits the greatest abundance of plants peculiar to Southern Asia.
[Illustration: TROPICAL VEGETATION.
1. Calamus Rotang.
2. Bamboos.
3. Borassus flabelliformis.
4. Diospyros ebenum.]
To form an idea of the variety and potency of the Flora of this region,
says M. Lanoye,[159] we must contemplate the specimens immured in our
European gardens, and augment tenfold their etiolated proportions; we
must bring together, in the dazzling confusion of Nature, the Mimosas,
the Musas, the odorous Screw-pines, the Mangoes, and the Orange trees;
twine around their trunks the many-branched stems of the Bignonias, the
Nagatelly, the Dictantes-Sambas, and the Lianas which furnish pepper and
the betel-nut; group under their shade the most beautiful varieties of
Azaleas, Jasmines, and Gardenias; unite those Laurels whence we extract
camphor, cassia, and cinnamon, with the red Santul, the Nopals, and the
Dragon trees which supply the costly gum-lacs; the Shrubs which give us
spikenard, cardamoms, and amome, with those Canes which secrete sugar.
Above these masses of flowers, above these sources of honey and perfume,
we must next display the immense leaves of the Talipot and the
Bourbon-palm, must spread in undulations the aërial palm-crests of the
Cocoa-nut and the gigantic Bamboo; must accumulate the sombre verdure of
the Teaks and the Tamarinds, and the impenetrable branches of the
consecrated Pines. Then, all this being accomplished, we shall still
have but a vague and colourless perception of the Indian Flora, and
notably of that which clothes the base of the Western Ghauts to the east
and to the south of the city of Goa.
The difficulty of picturing to ourselves the entirety of so glorious and
rich a scene reveals the impossibility of seizing all its details, of
studying one by one all its elements. Our attention, however, will be
arrested by a small number of species remarkable above all others by
their extraordinary dimensions, the elegance of their bearing, the
beauty of their flowers and foliage, or by some peculiar and destructive
property.
We notice in the first place several trees whose close relationship
cannot be mistaken to the date trees which we have already met with in
the open Desert, and which, we may remember, constituted the entire
wealth of the inhabitants of the oases. We find representatives of the
immense family of palms in every tropical country, and even in the coral
islands of the great ocean. India possesses several species. I shall
refer only to the _Borassus flabelliformis_, whose trunk, 90 to 120
feet in height, is surmounted by a crown of great fan-shaped leaves,
folded longitudinally in their first half, cut in the other, and
sustained by prickly supports. The other half is made use of by the
Hindus in the shape of paper, or rather tablets, on which they write
with the point of a stylet. The spadices (clustered flowers), if incised
before reaching maturity, yield a liquid which, after fermentation,
forms the favourite Indian beverage of "palm wine."
The Bamboo, the most gigantic of the tropical Gramineæ, is plentifully
distributed over India, Indo-China, and China, where it frequently
flourishes in considerable masses. In height it equals the loftiest
palms. Its culm is smooth, glittering, straight, and flexible, of a
beautiful yellow colour, and regularly intersected by annular rings
marked by so many brown streaks. It wavers gently to and fro with the
impulse of the wind, as if to refresh with its breath the light
undulating foliage.
Almost innumerable are the services which this heaven-sent plant renders
to the inhabitants of the countries where it flourishes. In hedges or
plantations it forms around their abodes a formidable defence. With its
stems sawn either in accordance with their diameter, or split
longitudinally, the natives not only fabricate a host of utensils and
articles of furniture, but build their barks and construct their houses.
They extract from the spaces between the joints of the young plant a
feculent substance which supplies them with an agreeable nutriment,
analogous to _sago_. A saccharine juice flows spontaneously from the
joints formed by the knots; when fermented it becomes alcoholic and
heady like hydromel. The bamboo also proves serviceable in the
manufacture of mats and cordage. The slender stems are split into thin
strips, which are probably softened in water. These strips, woven
together, form mats or carpets of extreme solidity.
* * * * *
The Banana,[160] like the Bamboo and most of the palms, is a
cosmopolitan plant throughout the tropic world. Its native habitat is
supposed to be Asia. The Oriental Christians have a tradition that this
tree, which they call the _Lignum Vitæ_, was that whose fruit was
forbidden to our first parents. Hence the name of _Musa paradisiaca_,
given by botanists to one of the two species of the genus; the other is
the Banana of the wise men, _Musa sapientum_. However this may be, it is
certain that if the use of the banana was at any time interdicted to
man, the prohibition has been annulled for many generations; and its
fruits form one of the most wholesome and most general articles of food
in tropical countries. Although the wild banana maintains its place
honourably in the forests of these regions, it is not a tree, but an
herbaceous plant. It propagates itself through its suckers, and its stem
perishes immediately after fructification. Its mode of vegetation is
analogous to that of the Liliaceæ. From a bulbous and fleshy platform
issue, beneath, its fibrous roots; above, enormous leaves, often nearly
a yard wide and two to three yards long. The petioles of these leaves
are adhesive. By folding themselves one over another, and successively
drying up, they grow into a stem which sometimes attains the dimensions
of the trunk of an ordinary tree (about seven feet) and the stature of
twelve to sixteen feet, and which is traversed throughout its centre by
a stalk springing from the bulb. This stalk rises again several inches
above the terminal leaf, then bends, sinks towards the ground, and
terminates in a stem which carries at its extremity the male flowers,
and at its base the female flowers, then the fruit. The latter,
collected in clusters of twelve to fourteen, are elongated, of a
prismatic triangular form, enveloped in a rind, green at first, then
yellow, and internally consist of a soft, feculent, sugary pulp, very
nutritious, and agreeable to the taste.
In its native clime the banana is born, grows, flourishes, fructifies,
and dies in the space of twelve or eighteen months. In the climates most
akin to ours, and in our European gardens, its development is not only
on a smaller scale, but occupies a longer period, and it has been known
to reach the age of ten or a dozen years.
[Illustration: THE BANYAN TREE (_Ficus Indica_).]
By the side of these weak-stemmed plants, with their soft and spongy
contexture, grow hosts of robust trees, whose timber is compact and
sometimes exceedingly hard, and whose branches are of immense span. My
readers will probably remember the lines in which Southey so admirably
describes one of the most majestic and most singular of these: the
Banyan, or Indian Fig-tree (_Ficus Indica_),[161] also designated the
"Multiplying Fig-tree," the "Admirable Fig-tree," and "Tree of Life."
The passage will bear transcription:[162]--
"It was a goodly sight to see
That venerable tree,
For o'er the lawn, irregularly spread,
Fifty straight columns propped its lofty head;
And many a long depending shoot
Seeking to strike its root,
Straight, like a plummet, grew towards the ground.
Some on the lower boughs, which crossed their way,
Fixing their bearded fibres, round and round,
With many a ring and wild contortion wound;
Some to the passing wind, at times with sway
Of gentle motion swung;
Others of younger growth, unmoved, were hung
Like stone-drops from the cavern's fretted height.
Beneath was smooth and fair to sight,
Nor weeds nor briars deformed the natural floor;
And through the leafy cope which bowered it o'er,
Came gleams of chequered light."
The Banyan surpasses in diameter the finest oaks of Europe, and throws
off numerous branches, of which several redescend towards the earth,
force their way into it, take root therein, and in their turn develop
into new trunks, whence spring other boughs that go through the same
process of fructification; so that a single stem spreads in time into a
kind of forest, and the canopy formed by the outgrowth of a solitary
tree will frequently overshadow an area of 1700 square yards.
The evergreen foliage of this beautiful tree forms an immense vault,
which has justly been compared to the domed roof of a stately edifice
supported by a host of columns. Here a myriad birds raise their songs of
joy; underneath, the weary pilgrim finds a delightful asylum; from
branch to branch leap the mocking ape and the nimble squirrel. The
Hindus hold their "Pagod tree" in great veneration. It is to them one of
the emblems of their god Siva, and in its dense deep shade they assemble
to celebrate their sacrificial rites, whether in honour of this potent
deity, or whether in honour of Ganesha, a rural divinity, analogous in
his attributes to the Pan of the Greeks and Latins.
Several other tropical trees possess, like the banyan, the property of
producing adventitious roots which spring from the trunk or branches
which implant themselves in the soil; but not one enjoys an equal power
of reproduction and multiplication.
* * * * *
One of the greatest trees of southern Asia, and possibly one of the
greatest in the world, is the Teak or Indian Oak (_Tectona grandis_),
which covers vast areas of ground in Hindostan. It flourishes also in
Pegu, Ava, Siam, Java, and the Burman Empire. It works easily, and
though porous, is permanent and strong; is readily seasoned, and shrinks
but little; is of an oleaginous character, and therefore does not
corrode iron. It is as strong as oak, and more buoyant. Its durability
is more uniform and decided; and to insure that durability it needs less
care and preparation; for it may be taken into use almost green from the
forest, without danger of dry or wet rot. It will endure all climates
and all alternations of climate.[163]
The teak of Malabar, grown on the high table-lands in the south of
India, is esteemed the best, because it is the heaviest, the most
durable, contains the most oil, and is the closest in its fibre. Next in
quality ranks that of Java, and inferior to these in some respects is
the teak of Burmah, Rangoon, and Siam; which, however, is the most
buoyant, and the best fitted for masts and spars.
African teak, let me note, is not teak properly so called, but the
timber of the _Oldfieldia Africana_. It is largely imported from the
west coast of Africa, and though an useful wood, lacks the most valuable
properties of the genuine teak.
The teak is a handsome and even stately tree, often attaining the noble
stature of 130 to 150 feet, with a trunk of proportionate diameter,
upright, well-shaped, and surmounted by wide-spread branches. Its large
leaves are oval, of a velvety under-surface, and besprinkled on the
upper with whitish spots. Its flowers cluster at the extremity of the
branch in an ample and beautiful panicle. The poisonous properties of
its wood preserve it from the attacks of vermin, but render it dangerous
to work, for men who are but lightly wounded by its splinters die after
a very brief interval.
A less useful timber than the teak, but much esteemed for the
manufacture of articles of luxury, is furnished by the _Diospyros
ebenum_ and the _Santalum album_.
In the Flora of tropical Asia a very important position is occupied by
the Laurel family. Several species of this family deserve to be
particularized on account of their commercial value: thus, from the
_Laurus camphora_ comes the camphor most esteemed by British physicians,
while the aromatic rinds of the _Laurus cinnamomum_, _Culilawan_,
_Malabathrum_, and _Cassia_, constitute the various kinds of cinnamon.
The _Laurus cassia_ is not to be confounded with another Indian tree,
one of the Leguminosæ, the _Cassia fistula_, whose enormous cods
formerly played an important rôle under the name of Cassia in
therapeutic science. While speaking of trees which produce aromatic
substances, I must not forget to mention the _Styrax benzoïn_, and the
_Boswellia serrata_. The former is a member of the family _Styracaceæ_,
whose trees or shrubs, chiefly tropical, are known by their monopetalous
flowers, their epipetalous stamens, their long radicle, leafy
cotyledons, and by a part at least of the ovules being suspended. The
_Styrax benzoïn_, a native of the Indian islands, yields the resin
called benzoin. The juice exudes from incisions made in the bark, and
when dried, is removed by a knife or chisel. Each tree yields about
three pounds' weight annually, the gum formed during the first three
years being superior in quality to that which subsequently exudes. It is
largely employed by perfumers, and in medicine is esteemed a remedy for
chronic pulmonary disorders. _Styrax officinale_, a native of the
Levant, furnishes the balsamic resinous substance known as storax, which
is also one of the materials manipulated by perfumers, and in medicine
is used as a stimulating expectorant.
The _Boswellia serrata_ supplies the fragrant incense whose vapours were
anciently supposed to be peculiarly agreeable to the gods made by man's
hands or conceived by his imagination.
India is also the native country and home-land of the Indigo plants
(_Indigofera tinctoria_, and _Indigofera anil_, of the Leguminosæ
family), and the _Gossypiums_, from whose expanded fruits is obtained
the all-powerful cotton; and in Cochin-China we meet with the _Croton
sebiferum_ or _Stillingia sebifera_ (family of the Euphorbiaceæ), whose
berries contain a rich concrete substance called "tree-tallow,"
employed, in the far East, in the manufacture of tapers. The latter
tree, popularly known as the "Tallow Tree," has rhomboid leaves, with
two prominent glands at the point of attachment between the stalk and
the leaf; and its flower catkins are from two to four inches long. "Its
fruits contain three seeds thickly coated with a fatty substance which
yields the tallow. This is obtained by steaming the seeds in large
caldrons, and then bruising them sufficiently to loosen the fat without
breaking the seeds, which are removed by sifting. The fat is afterwards
made into flat circular cakes, and pressed in a wedge-press, when the
pure tallow exudes in a liquid state, and soon hardens into a white
brittle mass. This tallow is very extensively used for candle-making in
China; but as the candles made of it become soft in hot weather, they
generally receive a coating of insect wax. A liquid oil is obtained from
the seeds by pressing. The tree yields a hard wood used by the Chinese
for printing blocks, and its leaves are employed for dyeing black."[164]
Climbing and epiphytous[165] plants are very numerous in India; but
there are none, perhaps, which in vegetative force and tenacity can be
compared to those of the _Calamus_, and particularly of the _Calamus
rotang_ (family of the _Palmaceæ_). These Lianas are all remarkable for
their flexible stem, which attaches itself to the trees, and frequently
attains the prodigious length of 200, 250, 300, and even 350 yards. This
stem is formed of a series of internodes, or jointed pieces, more or
less wide apart, each of which bears a leathery flower, with elongated
sheath. The Calami frequently render the forests which they inhabit
virtually impenetrable, through their long, flexible, and tenacious
arms, stretching across from tree to tree, or crawling over the ground,
and bristling with formidable thorns. It is these stems which are
imported into Europe as bamboos, cut into different lengths, and there
employed for various industrial purposes.
But it is time we took our leave of India, and allowed "observation with
extensive view" to survey the far-spreading African forests. There, in
the first place, we are called upon to salute the patriarch of the
tropical Flora, the _Baobab_ (_Adansonia digitata_), a gigantic genus of
the family _Bombaceæ_.
[Illustration: 1. Baobab. 2. Elæis Guinensis, or Guinea Palm. 3. Acacia
verek.]
This colossus of the vegetable world was discovered in Senegal by the
French botanist Adanson, in 1749. He measured the trunks of several
individuals, and found them from 65 to 78 feet in circumference, with
mighty branches, each of which was equal to a great oak or magnificent
chestnut. One baobab he computed at 90 feet in girth, and its rounded
crest extended over an area of upwards of 170 yards in circuit. A root
which was exposed to view, through the washing away of the superjacent
soil, measured 110 feet in length. Adanson estimated the age of some of
these Anakim of trees at 1500 years. They were just shooting above the
ground, if this reckoning be true, at the time that Constantine, the
first Christian emperor, removed the seat of empire from Rome to
Constantinople.
There are other gigantic trees in the forests of Senegambia, as, for
instance, the _Khaya Senegalensis_, which rears its crest to a height of
50 or 60 yards, whose hard reddish-coloured timber belongs to the
species known in commerce under the name of _Mahogany_. Another kind of
mahogany, but less valuable, called Senegal Mahogany, is furnished by
the _Swietenia Senegalensis_ (family of _Meliaceæ_, tribe of
_Cedrelaceæ_), named after Baron von Swieten, a Dutch botanist. It forms
a stately tree, some 60 or 80 feet high. _Swietenia Mahogani_, a native
of the warmer regions of America and the West Indies, yields the
mahogany of commerce. The first discovery of the existence of this kind
of wood is ascribed to the carpenter on board Sir Walter Raleigh's
vessel, when lying off Trinidad in 1595. It is not considered to reach
perfection under the venerable age of two hundred years. The seeds
prepared with oil are used by the modern Mexicans, as they were by the
ancient Aztecs, for cosmetic purposes; and the bark is considered a
febrifuge.
Among the most curious trees of the Senegal, whose Flora has quite a
character of its own, travellers have singled out the Butter Tree
(_Bassia butyracea_, family of the _Sapotaceæ_), whose fruits contain an
edible fatty substance, used by the natives as a substitute for butter;
and the Henna (_Lawsonia inermis_), which also flourishes on the eastern
coast and in Upper Egypt. The henna is a shrub from six to seven feet
high. Its flowers exhale a goat-like odour, which seems much affected by
the Orientals and the natives of Africa. Its roots, of a deep red hue,
are distinguished by a bitter taste and astringent properties. Finally,
its leaves supply an orange-red colouring matter, with which the Arabs
and negroes tint their hair, beard, and nails.
Let us not pass over without the tribute of our respectful notice the
numerous tribe of Acacias, which form vast forests in the districts
north of the Senegal, and yield the gum-arabic of commerce. The best
known species of this important and useful group are the _Acacia
Arabica_, or Red Gum-tree, the _Acacia Adansoni_, the _Acacia vera_, and
the _Acacia verek_.
We also meet at Senegal with a tree which I ought, perhaps, to have
ranked of right among those of India, and which, like many others,
belong rather to the whole zone of the Tropics than to any particular
country; I refer to the Tamarind (_Tamarindus Indica_),[166] whose
well-known name is supposed to be derived from the Arabic _Tamar_,
signifying "dates," and _Indus_, in allusion to its original habitat.
There is only one species of the genus, but the East Indian variety has
long pods, with six to twelve seeds, while the West Indian has much
shorter pods, containing one to four seeds. It is a tree of graceful
appearance, with elegant pinnated foliage and numerous racemes of
fragrant flowers. The pods are slightly curved, and consist of a brittle
brown shell, enclosing a soft, acid, brown pulp, traversed by strong
woody fibres; a thin membranous covering wraps up the seeds. The pulp
has a savour at once acid and sugary, and acts as a gentle laxative. The
timber is useful for building purposes, and furnishes excellent charcoal
for the manufacture of gunpowder.
The _Sterculiaceæ_ have numerous representatives at the Senegal. These
tall and handsome trees remind the traveller in their appearance of our
English oaks. The seeds of the _Sterculia acuminata_ and _tomentosa_ are
masticated by the negroes until reduced to a fluid paste, in which form
they employ it to dye their cotton-stuffs yellow. The dye is very
bright, and, it is said, extremely durable.
We know that a great part of the Gaboon is occupied by virgin forests,
where Fig-trees are predominant, and in marshy soils the Mangle or
Mangrove trees (_Rhizophora mangle_), which must not be confounded with
the savoury-fruited Mangoes of Eastern India. The Mangroves form, in the
family of the _Rhizophoras_, a genus distributed in the moist
localities of the Tropics, and we shall hereafter meet with them in
South America.
Equatorial Africa possesses several species of Palm-trees peculiar to
it. Such are the Thorny Date-tree, the _Borassus_ of Ethiopia, the
_Raphia vinifera_ of Congo, which, as its name "wine-bearing" indicates,
furnishes a wine analogous to that extracted in other regions from other
trees of the same family; the _Elæis Guinensis_, or Guinea Palm, whence
we obtain the well-known product of palm oil. This oil, or palm-tree
butter, forms an important article of food among the Guinea negroes. It
is imported into Europe in large quantities, and employed in the
manufacture of soap.
The forests of the Hottentot and Bechuana countries, and in general of
all those regions bordering on the Cape Colony, are frequently of great
extent, but mainly composed of trees of small stature, or even of
shrubs, such as the Cape Olive, a few Acacias, some Compositæ and
Conifers. Forests, as I have said, are rare in the explored portions of
the west African coast; they become denser and more numerous as we leave
the great ocean in our rear, and penetrate into that vast interior which
for ages has been haunted by so many mysteries. Their Flora, however,
offers no special character, and does not materially differ from that of
Guinea and Senegambia.
CHAPTER III.
VEGETABLE LIFE IN THE FORESTS OF THE GREAT ISLANDS.
I have said that under the same parallels of latitude, or under
neighbouring parallels, the physiognomy of the virgin forests was
everywhere nearly the same, and hence we must study from a point close
at hand the species which compose them, to determine the distinctive
characters of the great agglomerations of vegetables peculiar to
different countries. And yet the traveller who, after having explored
the primeval forests of Africa and Asia, should be transported to the
wild and wooded regions of the great Indian Archipelago and the Pacific
Ocean, could not fail to be struck with the novel spectacle presented to
his gaze. Undoubtedly he would meet, at first, with a great number of
plants not unknown to him; but he would not fail to discover many others
which he had not hitherto observed, and especially would he contemplate
with astonishment--perhaps with admiration--the chaos of this rich,
various, dense, but disordered vegetation. It seems, in truth, as if
within these "summer isles of Eden" Nature had hastened to accumulate
her choicest products, and feeling herself restricted within narrow
limits, had carefully laboured not to lose the smallest particle of
space--not even of the aërial territory, if I may so speak--allotted to
her. Not only are the trees set in the closest possible array, but they
struggle with wonderful effort to develop the exuberance of their
strength. Nearly all display an abundant and persistent foliage; their
branches are, in general, thick and spongy, and begin to shoot at the
base of the trunk; in such wise that the lower boughs extend close to
the ground, and by interlacing with those of neighbouring trees, form
impenetrable thickets. Many send forth, from their trunk and their
branches, frail flexible roots like the lianas, which descend to the
earth, plant themselves in the soil, and contribute to render the
forests absolutely impervious. Nor is this all; the plants grow there,
literally, one upon another. Nowhere, under the Tropics, does one see a
similar profusion of epiphytous plants; not a single tree but is invaded
by the close-clinging roots and flexible ramifications of these
parasites, mingled with brightly-blossoming lianas, whose multifold
stems are of immeasurable length. Species worthy of note, either on
account of their beauty, their various uses, or formidable poisonous
properties, and belonging to widely-differing families, abound,
moreover, in these perennial forests.
Ceylon, which has justly been named by the Orientals "a pearl detached
from Hindostan," so admirable is its situation, so marvellous is its
fertility, so exhaustless its mineral wealth, is the native country of
the _Laurus cinnamomum_--which was early transplanted to the
neighbouring continent--and of the Artocarpus, or Bread-fruit tree, one
of the most curious and most useful plants of this region.
[Illustration: BREAD-FRUIT TREE OF CEYLON (_Artocarpus incisa_).]
The Bread-fruit Tree (_Artocarpus incisa_) is a tree of the family
_Muriaceæ_, some 45 to 55 feet high. Make an incision in its bark,
wherever you will, and it exudes a white lacteal fluid, which hardens on
exposure to the air. Its branches are very numerous, and those nearest
its base attain a considerable length. Its leaves are large, consistent,
and somewhat deeply cut. It owes its name of "Bread-fruit tree" to its
ovoid or rounded fruit, about the size of an ostrich's egg, which forms
the staple food of the Cingalese. When fully ripe, the pulp or flesh is
white, firm, farinaceous, and very agreeable to the taste. The natives
boil it whole, or cut it into slices for roasting, and prepare it for
the table in numerous other modes. Two or three trees, it is said,
suffice for the provisioning of one man. My readers will remember that
its introduction in the West Indian Islands was signalized by the famous
Mutiny of the Bounty, and led indirectly to the settlement of Pitcairn's
Island; thus originating a strange and sufficiently poetical romance.
In the forests of Ceylon also flourish the _Cambogia Guttu_, the
_Stalagmites Cambogioides_, and the _Garcinia morella_ (family
_Guttiferæ_), whence camboge is extracted. This substance, at once
medicinal and tinctorial, exudes in a liquid state from wounds made in
the bark of the trees; it solidifies spontaneously in the vessels
wherein it is collected.
Immense forests overspread the humid plains of Sumatra. They are
constituted in the main of numerous species of Fig-trees (_Ficoidæ_),
whose abundant and persistent leaves form an obscure vault, impenetrable
by the sun's "golden arrows." Above this leafy dome shoot the rigid
trunks of trees of lofty stature. Of these, the most remarkable,
perhaps, is the Ipo-antiar (_Antiaris toxicaria_), whose juice, after
having undergone certain preparations, becomes one of the deadliest
known poisons. It was for a long time unknown with what substance the
Malays envenomed their arrows and their famous _kris_, or crease; nor
was it until the beginning of the present century that the traveller
Leschenault ascertained, not without difficulty, that it had for its
basis the juice of a very tall tree, with decaying leaves, to which he
gave the name of _Antiaris toxicaria_. This is the celebrated Upas,
whose deadly properties were formerly exaggerated in so many wonderful
fables. The poison is prepared in an earthen vessel, and mixed up with
certain quantities of the seed of the pimento and the pepper tree, and
the roots of various kinds of ginger. These are mixed together slowly,
except the pimento-grains, which are precipitated one by one to the
bottom of the vessel by means of a small stick. Each grain produces a
slight fermentation, and rises to the surface. It is then extracted, to
be plunged anew into the mixture, and this process is eight or nine
times repeated; after which the mixture is complete. It appears that the
Upas-antiar, taken internally, acts at first as a purgative, but
afterwards its influence extends to the brain, and produces death with
frightful tetanic convulsions. Introduced into the blood through a
wound, it kills small animals in a few moments, and men in a few hours.
[Illustration: 1. Nipa fruticans. 2. Sugar Palm (_Areca saccharifera_).
3. Ipo-Antiar (_Antiaris toxicaria_).]
Marvel-loving writers formerly asserted that this deadly poison was
employed in the execution of criminals, who, however, received a pardon
if they contrived to reach a tree, and bring back a supply of its venom.
Birds, it was said, dropped dead while flying over it--as was formerly
told of the pestilential waters of the Dead Sea--and the whole country
around was desolated by its noxious effluvia. But the fact is, the upas
tree is merely a tree with poisonous secretions, and in no way affects
the atmosphere of the locality where it lives.
A not less terrible poison is furnished by the Liana Tieuté (_Strychnos
tieuté_), a member of the family _Loganiaceæ_. It has an exceedingly
long stem, but does not yield, like the upas, a whitish milky juice. Its
voluminous roots are covered with a thin reddish bark, of a peculiarly
bitter taste. By boiling these roots the Javanese obtain the poisonous
resin called in Malaysia _Upas tieuté_, and which was at one time
supposed to be identical with the essential element introduced by the
Indians of South America into their famous _Ourari_ or _Wourali_. Sir
Richard Schomburgk, however, has shown that the latter is obtained from
the _Strychnos toxifera_, a native of Guiana.
There are several other species of Strychnos; all with flattened,
disc-like, and silky seeds, surrounded by pulp. _S. nux vomica_, a
moderate-sized tree, with fruit much like an orange in appearance,
furnishes the valuable medicine and fatal poison--for it is both--called
_Nux vomica_. The seeds have an intensely bitter taste, owing to the
presence of two most virulent poisons, _Strychnia_ and _Brucia_; but the
pulp is innocuous, and greedily devoured by birds. _Strychnos
Colubrina_, a native of Malabar, furnished a variety of Snakewood, which
in cases of bites by serpents is esteemed an infallible remedy. _S.
Pseudo-quina_, which flourishes in Brazil, yields a bark scarcely
inferior in value as a tonic and a febrifuge to quinine.
* * * * *
I have spoken of the abundance and variety of the epiphytous plants
which grow profusely in the islands of the Indian Ocean. In Sumatra and
in Borneo, the more venerable trees are clothed in a rich garment of
lycopodiums and ferns, and these often glow with dazzling orchidaceous
flowers, while by their side flourish strange aroidaceæ, with climbing
crawling stems, and aërial suckers. But of all these brilliant
parasites, the most extraordinary, without doubt, is the _Rafflesia
Arnoldi_--a plant without any stem, which grows along the surface of the
ground upon the roots of the _lianas_, and principally of the _lissus_,
a species of vine peculiar to tropical countries. It was discovered by
Dr. Arnold, while in attendance upon Sir Stamford Raffles, Governor of
Java. It produces only a fleshy flower, of a wine-like colour, with an
intolerably disgusting odour; but it acquires extraordinary, and one
might say monstrous dimensions, for it seldom measures less than a yard
in diameter, and its weight frequently exceeds four pounds.
Upon the humid coasts of Borneo and Sumatra, the _Casuarinas_ mingle
their weeping branches with those of the mangroves and fig-trees. Palms
are common in these two great islands, as well as at Ceylon and at Java.
I may mention among the most useful the _Nipa fruticans_ and the Sugar
Palm (_Areca saccharifera_). The transformed leaves which accompany the
inflorescence of the Nipa are brimful of a sugared and effervescent
liquid, which is extracted by pressure, and converted into a palm wine
of indifferent quality, consumed in great quantities in the Sunda
Archipelago. A very sweet liquid, a species of syrup fit for the
confection of dainty sweetmeats, escapes from incisions made into the
floral envelopes of the _Areca saccharifera_. A tree-wax, analogous to
that of the _Croton sebiferum_, is furnished by the tree which the
natives of Borneo designate Pallagrar-Minjok (_Dipterocarpus
trinervis_). And, finally, it is at Borneo and at Sumatra we meet with
the _Dryobabanops camphora_, whence is procured a species of camphor
preferred by the Chinese to that of the _Laurus camphora_; the _Urceola
elastica_, whose milky sap indurates into a kind of caoutchouc, called
Suitawan; and the _Isonandra-Percha_ (genus _Bassia butyracea_, family
of the Sapotaceæ), which of recent years has become the staple of an
extensive commerce. It is from this tree we obtain the valuable product
of gutta-percha, which has received such various and ingenious
applications, and is scarcely less useful in the arts than in the
sciences.
[Illustration: FLORA OF THE EAST INDIAN ISLANDS:--
1. Rafflesia Arnoldia.
2. Niphobolus pubescens.
3. Phalænopsis amabilis.
4. Ærides suaveolens.
5. Cycas circinnalis.
6. Nepenthes distillatoria.
7. Scindapsus pertusus.]
Java is perhaps the most fertile of the Sunda Islands. Immense forests
extend over its plains, and climb up its mountain-slopes to an elevation
of upwards of 6500 feet. The damp localities are peopled with Clusiaceæ,
and with other trees of thick soft trunks and branches. Mangroves and
Avicennias thrive upon the littoral. The latter are specially noticeable
on account of their roots, which climb to a great distance above the
muddy soil, and throw off a number of suckers, not unlike gigantic
water-pipes (_asperges_). Among the palms most abundant at Java, I
confine myself to naming the Borrassus, the Corypha, and the Areca. The
Vaquois (a species of _Pandanus_), which in stature and appearance
resemble the palms, are also widely diffused in that rich and fertile
island. In the forests of its interior swarm such splendid Ferns as the
_Niphobolus pubescens_, and such graceful Archids as the _Aerides_
_suaveolens_, with its far-shooting fronds and flowers, and the
_Phalænopsis amabilis_. There, too, the traveller pauses before the
_Cycas circinnalis_, whose trunk, upright and cylindrical as a Grecian
column, is surmounted by a crest of feathery leaves, each six to seven
feet in length, stiff, and cut into numerous strips, somewhat like our
native bracken; or he refreshes himself with the pure liquid which the
winding _Nepenthes distillatoria_, or Pitcher plant, collects in its
horn-shaped leaves, as a constant source of nutriment for its active
life; or, finally, he gazes wonderingly at the _Scindapsus pertusus_, an
epiphytous plant, whose cartilaginous leaves are perforated with an
infinity of small circular holes, and which twines itself round the
tallest forest-trees in an embrace as close as love's!
The forest-flora of the Moluccas differs but little from that of the
Sunda Islands. It presents, however, a few plants particularly
calculated to excite our interest. Thus, at Amboyna, the Sago-Palms,
with other trees of the same family, accumulate in immense woods,
spreading over hundreds of acres. Everybody knows that the pith of this
palm is a white farinaceous substance, called _sago_, which not only
enters largely into the daily food of the natives, but forms an
important item in the European bill of fare, at least for children and
invalids. Amboyna, moreover, is the classic land of spices. The air is
thick with "Sabæan odours." Every breeze comes laden with perfumes. The
Nutmeg (_Myristica aromatica_), the Clove (_Caryophyllus aromaticus_),
and the Pepper-plants grow there in a wild state.
In the Philippines vegetation is singularly favoured by the humidity of
the climate and the elevation of the temperature, so that the Flora of
these richly-endowed islands displays a prodigious variety. Not a single
family of tropical plants but is here represented by several species.
Hill and valley and plain alike are characterized by the exuberant
growth of leaf and fruit and flower; the graceful forms might have
enchanted an ancient Greek, the wealth of glowing and intense colour
would have fired the imagination of Turner, and defied the palette of
Titian or Tintoretto. There are landscapes of such beauty and fertility
as the fancy of artist or poet never conceived. Ferns and Orchids are,
perhaps, even more abundant here than in the forests of Java, Borneo, or
Sumatra. The Bamboo attains to unusual proportions; the Areca (_Areca
catechu_) raises to the sky its tall shapely stem, crested with
plume-like leaves; and the Betel-nut tree supplies in profusion the
grains which, mixed with the fruits of the gigantic palm, constitute the
_Pinangue_; a kind of _quid_, which the Orientals chew delightedly, and
to which they attribute very valuable stomachic and digestive
properties. Under the dense shade of the great forests we are amazed by
untold numbers of various kinds of plants, all adorned by richly
coloured leaves, which invest the scene with a singular charm, nay, with
something of a fairy character; and amongst these we single out the
_Dracæna terminalis_, with its blood-empurpled foliage, which, recently
introduced into Europe, has already become one of the greatest ornaments
of our parks and gardens.
I have previously had occasion to remark the singularity of character
which in Australia distinguishes almost every member either of the
vegetable or the animal kingdom. I have already said that this immense
island-continent seems to have been the chosen theatre for a distinct
creative display, where every type differs from the representatives of
our scientific classifications in other parts of the globe. The reader
has been able to form some idea of the fancifulness of the vegetable
forms peculiar to the Australian savannahs. Nor are those which
constitute the so-called forests less strangely fantastic. On the
southern coast, which is the coolest, the forests are of very moderate
extent. In fact, they may be more correctly described as enormous
thickets scattered in tolerably sheltered localities. Most of the trees
which compose them have trunks of great feebleness compared with their
height, which is often prodigious, and they do not begin to ramify until
near their summits. Their bark is smooth, and usually of a
grayish-white. Of all their species it can only be said that two--the
_Stadmannia austral_ and the _Alectryon_--bear fruit which men can eat
even under the pressure of hunger. Finally--and this without doubt is
the most singular feature of a truly exceptional vegetation--while all
the trees and herbaceous plants of the Old and New Worlds develop their
leaves horizontally, or on a plane tangent to the cylindrical surface of
the trunk or stem, in Australia the leaves of the trees are disposed
vertically; in such wise that they give scarcely any shade, and yet are
themselves exposed in the very slightest degree to the action of the
solar rays. It is owing to this latter circumstance they are always
weakly coloured; and thus they give to the densest forests and the most
robust trees a sickly tint, a sort of pallor of disease, which saddens
the gaze accustomed to the varied tones and vivid hues of the verdure of
tropical forests, or to the bold contrasts of light and shade exhibited
by the woods of Europe and North America.
The Australian species are comprised in a small number of families,
notably in those of the Coniferæ and Myrtaceæ. Certain forests are
wholly composed of Casuarinas; others, of Acacias; others again, of
Eucalypti. Some of the latter trees may be ranged among the greatest
with which botanists are acquainted. The Blue Gum (_Eucalyptus
globulus_) attains, for instance, the extraordinary stature of upwards
of 300 feet, and does not send out a single branch until half this
distance from the ground. Its upright cylindrical trunk furnishes a
timber much appreciated by ship-wrights, and especially makes admirable
masts. The Eucalypti secrete in abundance a white, sugary, and aromatic
substance; whence they derive their popular name of "gum trees"--a name
which is also bestowed very frequently upon the gum-bearing Acacias.
The family of Coniferæ exhibit themselves in Australia, like every
other group of plants, under strange and novel forms. The shape of those
trees is generally fusiform and pyramidal; their leaves are sometimes
extraordinarily small, sometimes large and flattened. Many are of great
size; none, however, attaining the gigantic proportions of the
celebrated columnar Pine of New Caledonia, which Cook's companions
mistook for a colossal mass of basaltic pillars, and which Moore, like a
true son of industrious Albion, compared to an enormous factory-chimney.
This tree exceeds 160 feet in height, and its ramifications, all of the
same height, radiate regularly around its trunk, from the base even to
the summit.
[Illustration: 1. Ravenala Madagascariensis. 2. Heritiera argentea. 3.
Tanghin.]
* * * * *
[Illustration: A FOREST IN MADAGASCAR.]
I have now to ask the reader's companionship on an excursion into the
forests of the great African island of Madagascar. The insalubrity of
the climate and the jealous inhospitality of the inhabitants will not
permit us to penetrate far into their luxuriant depths; but the most
superficial glance will satisfy us upon their wild magnificence and the
original variety of their superb flora.[167]
We should seek in vain among their leafy, blossoming glades, for the
famous Manchineal, a member of the American _Euphorbiaceæ_, which holds
a high place in the records of vegetable poisons; but the toxicological
amateur will find ample compensation in examining the formidable
Tanghin,[168] whose deadly juice, mixed with some other substances,
plays an important part in the judicial ordeals popular among the
Malagasy.
The Tanghin, or Tanguen (_T. venenifera_), is the only plant of its
genus, and is confined to Madagascar. It is described as a tree with
smooth alternate leaves of moderate thickness, clustered towards the
points of the branches, with large terminal cymes of flowers, having a
salver-shaped corolla, with rose-coloured lobes. The ovary is twofold,
with a long style and thick stigma; but usually only one attains to
perfection, and forms an ellipsoid fruit, somewhat pointed at the ends,
invested in a smooth purplish-green skin, and containing a hard stone
surrounded by a thick fibrous pulp. The poisonous seed of the Tanghin is
esteemed by the natives an infallible criterion of guilt or innocence.
After being pounded, a small piece is swallowed by the supposed
criminal. If he be cursed with a strong stomach, which retains the
poison, he speedily dies, and is held guilty; if his feeble digestion
rejects it, he necessarily escapes, and his innocence is considered
proven.
Beneficent Nature has planted by the side of this fatal tree a species
of infinite value, the _Ravenala Madagascariensis_, or "Traveller's-Tree,"
which derives the latter designation from the base of the petiole of its
large leaves, expanded and hollowed out into a kind of gutter, being
constantly filled with fresh water, and serving as a reservoir for the
thirsty wayfarer. The Vacquois, or Vacoa (_Pandanus utilis_), one of
the Screw-Pines, is of much utility to the natives, who fabricate sacks
and bags out of its tenacious leaves. The manufacture of these bags is a
source of comparative wealth for the poorer inhabitants of Madagascar,
and to a still greater extent for those of Réunion and the Mauritius,
whence they are exported annually by millions.
The Malagasy forests also include several resinous species; among
others, the Copal-Tree, which furnishes the well-known gum used in
Europe as a varnish; and the _Vahea_, a genus of Apocynaceæ, yielding
caoutchouc, which will hereafter figure largely in the exports from this
magnificent island. There are two species, namely, _Vahea
Madagascariensis_--the "Voua Héri" of the natives--and _Vahea
gummifera_. Numerous lianas, and a multitude of epiphytous plants,
ferns, and orchids, envelop and intertangle the trunks of the great
trees. I shall specify only the Beaded Liana (_Abrus precatorius_),
whose small hard fruits, rounded and of a scarlet red, make graceful
wreaths and necklaces; the _Angræcum sesquipedale_ (an orchid), with
bright irregular flowers; and the _Angræcum fragrans_, whose perfumed
leaves supply a wholesome and savoury infusion. Finally, the _Heritiera
argentea_, a tree about as large as our lindens, which certain botanists
place among the Byttneriaceæ, and others among the Sterculiaceæ, is
noticeable on account of its abundant foliage glittering silver-white.
CHAPTER IV.
VEGETABLE LIFE IN THE FORESTS OF THE NEW WORLD.
Nature, said Linné, is admirable above all in the smallest things:
_Natura maxime miranda in minimis_. He might, perhaps, have more justly
said, _Natura non minus miranda in minimis quam in maximis_: Nature is
not less wonderful in the least than in the greatest. Whether any
created thing occupies a more or less considerable space, or contains a
greater or lesser quantity of matter, is of no importance to the
naturalist, who only studies the structure of the organs, the springs of
life, and the different forces which set them in motion; and considered
from this point of view, a vibrio[169] and an elephant, a penicillium
and a baobab, possess for him the same importance, the same amount of
interest. It would, however, be unjust not to recognize the fact that
there is something very legitimate in the kind of reverential admiration
which every man is conscious of in the presence of those things that
symbolize, to a certain extent, power, strength, majesty, endurance--of
those that possess in a high degree the two valuable qualities of force
and greatness. Coleridge tells us that we admire the cataract because it
is the type of power. Probably our feelings for the oak are connected
with its emblematic properties of permanency, vigour, and durability.
All the logic of logicians, and all the sentiment of natural
philosophers, will never induce the mass of men to regard with the same
interest an ant and a lion, a tuft of moss and a forest of oaks, a grain
of sand and an Alpine peak. I do not think, therefore, that I am
stooping to a merely vulgar prejudice in signalling out to the reader,
among the vegetables of the forests, those whose exceptional dimensions
and venerable antiquity are for every traveller an object of
astonishment and curiosity. The truth is, that from their contemplation
we derive a more vivid conception of Almighty Power than from the
examination of even the most wonderful microscopical mechanism. To the
still small voice of Nature our ears are deafened by the clash and clang
of an ever-active world; but we cannot refuse to listen to the roar of
the ocean or the reverberation of the thunder. As we move swiftly onward
in the press of the crowd and the race of life, we ignore the tiny blade
and the delicate organism beneath our feet; but our eyes must perforce
be opened to the splendours of the sea, the undulating summits of
snow-crowned mountains, the sapphire vault of the starry heavens. Those
things realize to us, at once and with impressive force, the ubiquitous
majesty of the Divine Builder. And it is well that they should lift us
for a while above the materialism of our daily lives into a purer
atmosphere of thought and feeling--should bid us, while still lingering
in the dusty track, expand our souls to hear
"The mighty waters rolling evermore."
It is not only in tropical regions that we meet with the giants of the
vegetable world. Europe possesses a few of them; isolated, it is true,
but comparable in their stature to the most robust denizens of the
Torrid Zone: such are the chestnut-tree of Etna, and the plane of
Boudjoukdéré, near Constantinople, of which so many travellers have
spoken. The remains of the virgin forests of North America also abound
in species analogous to our own, and capable of attaining, with an
almost incalculable longevity, truly extraordinary proportions.
* * * * *
The lofty table-lands of California (the Rocky Mountains) nourish an
entire tribe of gigantic Coniferæ, frequently assembled in immense
forests. The _Pinus Lambertiana_, the _Pinus Sabiniana_, and the _Pinus
insignis_, are not less than 160 to 180 feet in height; the _Douglas
Fir_ boasts of an almost equal stature, with a circumference which
varies from 18 to 36 feet. Yet these colossal trees are surpassed by the
_Sequoia sempervirens_, which is 240 to 260 feet high, and by the Titan
of Titans, the huge _Wellingtonia gigantea_, which is also a Sequoia. I
shall mention a few individuals of the latter species, whose dimensions
may defy all comparison with the greatest trees of the Tropics.
According to Müller, about ninety-four of these Coniferæ flourish on a
plateau of the Sierra Nevada, at an altitude of 5400 feet. They are
distributed in small groups over a fertile soil. The gold-seekers have
named one of them the "Miner's Cabin." Its trunk, 320 feet in height,
presents an excavation 16 feet in width. The "Three Sisters" are
individuals springing from one root; the "Old Bachelor," stripped of its
branches by successive hurricanes, stands in solitary desolation; the
"Family" consists of two aged trees around which four-and-twenty scions
have sprung up. The "Riding-School" is an enormous hollow trunk,
prostrate on the ground, into which a man on horseback may enter as far
as thirty yards. Another hollow trunk has been exhibited at San
Francisco, where they have constructed out of it a saloon, adorned with
tapestry and furniture, capable of accommodating forty persons.
[Illustration:
1. Large-leaved Magnolia. 2. Virginian Catalpa. 3. Pinus Sabiniana.]
Other resinous trees of smaller dimensions grow in the more or less
humid localities of North America; such are the _Chamoecyparis
Chamæcyparis sphæroidea_, which does not exceed 80 feet in height, and
the Western _Thuya_ of pyramidal outline. Nor must I forget to name,
among the Conifers of this continent, the Cypress of Louisiana, a tree
of handsome appearance, about 100 feet high and 12 to 15 feet in
circumference, which lives, it is said, 5500 to 6000 years. Its leaves
are shrunken like those of the larch; and from its roots, somewhat
deeply buried, spring several protuberances, or rounded conical
exostoses, which sometimes grow to the height of three feet without
bourgeoning.
The forests of the West and of the South which have hitherto escaped the
torch and the axe of the pioneer present to the traveller's admiring
gaze those magnificent species described so eloquently by Chateaubriand
and Cooper, and which are even less remarkable for their gigantic
stature than for the majestic elegance of their port, the beauty of
their foliage, and the dazzling splendour of their flowers. Some of
these forests are partly formed of Oaks whose leaves assume in autumn a
purple tint, like the "pupureum lumen" of the Latin poet. In others the
dominant trees are the Plane of the West, the Maple, the round-crested
Tulip, the large-leaved Catalpa, the Magnolia with white and scented
blossoms. To their trunks clings a whole world of climbing, creeping,
and parasitic plants; as the Virgin Vine, the Sumach, and the Virginian
Jasmine.
Mexico, as far as relates to its climate and productions, has been
divided into three distinctly marked regions, defined not by latitude,
but by the elevation of various portions of its territory. The upper
region, or Cold Lands, is that of the lofty mountains; the mean region,
or Temperate Lands, that of the intermediate plateaus; the inferior
region, or Hot Lands, is that of the low plains, sometimes arid,
sometimes marshy or wooded.
The arborescent Flora of the first two regions very nearly approximates
to that of our northern countries; it principally consists of Pines,
Firs, Oaks, and Arbute Trees. But in the Hot Lands the vegetation
generally assumes, as we descend towards the south, all the
characteristics of the tropical Flora. The feathery and graceful Palm
trees re-appear, mingled with Coryphas, Oreodoxas, Malpighiaceæ, and
Bignoniaceæ. There also grows the _Crescentia cujete_, or Calabash-tree,
which is likewise found in the Antilles; it has a tortuous trunk, long
branches extended horizontally, and ovoid fruits, clothed with a hard
woody bark, which the Indians fabricate into vessels of divers forms,
painting them in the liveliest colours.
Mexico is the country of the _Morus tinctoria_ and the _Hæmatoxylon
Campechianum_. These two trees furnish the dye-wood which forms so
important an article of commerce: the first, under the name of the
"yellow wood of Tampico" or "Tuspan;" the second, under that of
"Campeachy wood." It is in the hottest and most humid parts of the
southern provinces of this Republic that we meet, for the first time,
with one of the most precious trees of the Equinoctial Zone, the
Cacao-tree (_Theobroma cacao_), whose bruised and roasted seeds, mixed
with variable amounts of sugar and starch, form the different kinds of
Cocoa; or, sweetened and flavoured with vanilla or other substances, the
article known as Chocolate. It is but a small tree, with large entire
leaves, and clustered flowers growing from the sides of the old stems
and branches. Its large pentagonal fruits vary from six to ten inches in
length and three to five in breadth, and contain between fifty and a
hundred seeds.
The _Vanilla planifolia_, another Mexican native, famous for its
succulent fruit, is a plant of the Orchidaceous order, which climbs
about other trees in the manner of ivy. It is the only genus of the
family which possesses any economical value. The delicate perfume of its
fruit is due to the presence of benzoic acid, which forms in crystals
upon the pod, if left undisturbed.
* * * * *
Already, in Central America, we encounter the first ranks, the vanguard,
as it were, of those vast impenetrable forests which spread over the
whole northern region of South America to the banks of the Amazon, and
cover with dense foliage immense areas in Guiana and Brazil. If we would
pause again to wonder at the Giants of the Vegetable Kingdom, we shall
find many well worthy of our consideration. Such, for example, is the
_Bertholletia excelsa_, a colossal Lecythidacean on the borders of the
Orinoco, whose large fruits are known in Europe as "Brazil nuts," the
seeds being enclosed in large woody vessels. The Sapucaya (_Lecythis
ollaria_) is scarcely less abundant, and of immense height. Its fruit,
popularly called "Monkey's Drinking-cups" (Cuyas de Macaco), consists of
a cup-like vessel, with a circular hole at the top, in which a natural
lid fits neatly. When the nuts are ripe this lid becomes loosened, and
the heavy cup falls with a crash, scattering the nuts over the ground.
"What attracted us chiefly," says a traveller in the virgin
forests,[170] "were the colossal trees. The general run had not
remarkably thick stems; the great and uniform height to which they grow
without emitting a branch, was a much more noticeable feature than their
thickness; but at intervals of a furlong or so a veritable giant towered
up. Only one of these monstrous trees can grow within a given space; it
monopolises the domain, and none but individuals of much inferior size
can find a footing near it. The cylindrical trunks of these larger trees
were generally 20 to 25 feet in circumference. Von Martius mentions
having measured trees in the Parà district belonging to various species
(Symphonia coccinea, Lecythis spirula, and Cratæva Tagia), which were 50
to 60 feet in girth at the point where they become cylindrical. The
height of the vast column-like stems could not be less than 100 feet
from the ground to their lowest branch. Mr. Leavens, at the saw-mills,
told me they frequently squared logs for sawing 100 feet long, of the
Pas d'Arco and the Massaranduba. The total height of these trees, stem
and crown together, may be estimated at from 180 to 200 feet: where one
of them stands, the vast dome of foliage rises above the other forest
trees as a domed cathedral does above the other buildings in a city.
"A very remarkable feature in these trees," says Mr. Bates, "is the
growth of buttressed-shaped projections around the lower part of their
stems. The spaces between these buttresses, which are generally thin
walls of wood, form spacious chambers, and may be compared to stalls in
a stable: some of them are large enough to hold half-a-dozen persons.
The purpose of these structures is as obvious, at the first glance, as
that of the similar props of brickwork which support a high wall. They
are not peculiar to one species, but are common to most of the larger
forest trees. Their nature and manner of growth are explained when a
series of young trees of different ages is examined. It is then seen
that they are the roots which have raised themselves ridge-like out of
the earth; growing gradually upwards as the increasing height of the
tree required augmented support. Thus they are plainly intended to
sustain the massive crown and trunk in these crowded forests, whose
lateral growth of the roots in the earth is rendered difficult by the
multitude of competitors."
Scarcely less remarkable, and certainly not less useful, than the
Traveller's Tree of Madagascar is the Massaranduba, or Cow Tree, of
these grand Brazilian wildernesses. It is one of the largest of the
forest monarchs, but rather reminds you of monarchy in its decay than of
regal pomp, owing to its deeply-scored reddish and ragged back. A
decoction of this bark is used as a red dye for cloth. The copious
milk-like fluid which the tree supplies, and which may even be drawn
from dry logs that have stood for days in the sun, is wholesome and
nutritious, if taken in moderate quantities. On exposure to the air it
soon thickens into an excessively tenacious glue.
But, apart from these monstrous trees, the virgin forest possesses an
abundance of interest for even the least observant traveller, while in
its various phases it is adapted to astonish, to impress, and to awe a
thoughtful mind. It is true that it does not boast of that profusion of
floral ornament, of those gay and exquisite buds and blossoms, which
make the charm of our English woods; but in its infinite variety of
foliage the grace of colour and beauty of form are ever present. What
most seizes upon the soul, however, is its intense silence--which the
occasional scream of some wild animal, or the infrequent song of some
pensive bird, or the sudden crash of some over-toppling tree, does but
render the more significant and appalling. The hush is like that which
prevails on a battle-field before the dread voices of the cannon speak
of death and carnage, but, unlike that hush, it is never interrupted.
Morning comes with its cold gray lights, noon with its warmth and
radiance and splendour, night with its orbed moon and pearly dews, but
the hush still reigns undisturbed, and it seems to the traveller as if
it would never be broken but by the sounds which shall proclaim the end
of all things!
[Illustration:
1. Blechnum Brasiliense. 2. Alsophila horrida. 3. Panicum plicatum.
4. Marauta. 5. Caladium violaceum.]
It is rather by the varied characteristics of the species which compose
it, by their fantastic structures and useful properties, than by its
gigantic outcomes, that the wild flora of these forest-regions appeals
to our admiration. We are struck at first by the infinite variety,
richness, and elegance of the vegetable forms. Especially do we pause in
wonder before those glorious Tree-Ferns which I take to be the finest
growth of the tropical wilderness. These Ferns, from 36 to 50 feet in
height, are not unlike Palms in their physiognomy; their stem is only
less upright, shorter, and more scaly; their foliage, slightly dentated
on the edges, is more delicate, of a looser and more transparent
texture. To this family belong the _Blechnum Brasiliense_ and the
_Alsophila horrida_. Not less attractive in appearance are the _Clusia
rosea_ or the _Carolinea insignis_. The former of these trees belong to
a family (that of the Clusiaceæ) nearly all whose representatives throw
off from every point of their branches long aerial roots. The traveller
reposes with a feeling of Sybaritic delight under its thick and
evergreen foliage, enriched with brilliant flowers. The second, with its
shrunken leaves, owes the specific epithet (_insignis_, "remarkable")
which botanists have imposed upon it, to the peculiar structure of its
flowers. The latter bear in the centre of their chalice a great number
of stamens, which form a silken tuft of the most graceful design.
The Gramineæ, like the Ferns,--to use an expression of
Humboldt's,--"ennoble themselves" under the Tropics: witness the Bamboo,
the Sugar-Cane, the Sorgho, and the great Panicums. Of the latter genus
we have already seen in Africa numerous species. America in its turn
offers to our attention the _Panicum maximum_ and _plicatum_,
wood-inhabiting Gramineæ, which without attaining to the dimensions of
the bamboo, or even to that of the cane, far surpass that of their
European congener, the millet.
The graceful palms abound in South America. The greatest of all, the
Cocoa-tree, seems there to have discovered its true home, for it nowhere
else acquires a greater development. There, too, the Banana flourishes
marvellously, no less than the Cocoa-tree, in a wild state, and, like
the latter, is carefully cultivated on account of its nourishing and
savoury fruits. A multitude of lianas and epiphytous plants twine round
the trunks and branches of the trees, and frequently choke up their
failing life. Some are indigenous to all tropical countries: the
_Calamus Rotang_, for example; others are more particularly, or even
exclusively, proper to the New World.
[Illustration:
1. Banana. 2. Carolinea insignis. 3. Clusia rosea.]
The family of Aroideæ is there represented by the _Pothos_, whose fleshy
and herbaceous stems are surmounted by leaves sometimes arrow-headed,
sometimes digitate or elongated, and always divided by thick cord-like
nerves. We know that the Aroideæ alone possess, in the vegetable
kingdom, the property of disengaging, while flowering, a heat
appreciable by the thermometer. To this family belong the _Caladiums_, a
genus closely allied to the Pothos. With these lianas mingle the
branching stems of the Passifloræ, or Passion-Flowers, so named because
Pierre de Ceza, in his "Histoire du Pérou," asserted that he had
recognized in the fantastic flowers of this genus of plants all the
instruments of our Saviour's Passion--an idea which could only have been
conceived by an imaginative and credulous Spaniard. Elsewhere the
Bignonias open by hundreds their large and richly-coloured flowers; the
Bauhinias stretch along the trees their long leafless branches, often 40
to 45 feet in length, which sometimes hang vertically from the lofty
summits of the Swietenias, or Mahogany trees, and sometimes extend
obliquely from one huge trunk to another, like the ropes of a ship. The
Tiger-Cats, says Humboldt, display a wonderful agility in mounting or
descending these graceful vegetable shrouds.
Upon the umbrageous banks of the Rio Magdalena grows a creeping
_Aristolochus_, whose flowers in their extraordinary development surpass
those of the _Rafflesia Arnoldi_, measuring often three feet and a half
in circumference. The forests of which we are now speaking also nourish
numerous species of Convolvulus; I may particularize the _Convolvulus
batatas_, a climbing plant, whose roots produce the feculent and
saccharine tubercules known over the wide world by the name of
"Patates," and frequently but erroneously confounded with that most
useful vegetable, the Potato. The root of another Convolvulus, a native
of Mexico, constitutes the _Jalap officinalis_, which figures in the
veterinary pharmacopoeia as an important purgative.
Certain lianas, common enough in the South American forests, belong to
the family of _Sapindaceæ_, which, like the orders Loganiceæ and
Euphorbiaceæ, owe their reputation chiefly to the medicinal or poisonous
substances extracted from them. Among the Sapindaceæ I shall mention
only the genus _Paullinia_, which includes several species endowed with
narcotic properties. These properties appear especially developed in the
_Paullinia pinnata_. Its bark, leaves, and fruit contain an abundant
acrid principle with which the Indians of Brazil prepare a slow but
certain poison. The Indians of Guiana extract from the _Paullinia
cururu_ another substance with which they envenom their arrows, and
which was long supposed to be the veritable _Wourali_. But Sir Richard
Schomburgk has shown that the latter formidable poison is really
extracted, as I have already recorded, from the _Strychnos toxifera_, a
shrub of the family _Loganiaceæ_, which flourishes in Guiana and Brazil.
To the same family and the same countries belong the _Ignatia amara_,
whose seeds are known by the name of "St. Ignatius' Beans." These beans
contain two alkaloids, _Strychnine_ and _Brucine_, which we also extract
from the _Nux vomica_, and which must be classed among the most violent
poisons known to the toxicologist.
While speaking of the poisonous plants of South America, a few words in
reference to the Manchineal (_Hippomane Mancenilla_) will not be
inappropriate. This tree thrives best, it is said, on the sea-shore. It
bears a profusion of very pretty fruit, resembling in colour and form
the Red Apple (the Spanish _Manzanilla_), and exhaling an agreeable,
lemon-like odour. They are, therefore, scarcely less beguiling than Dead
Sea fruits; but they are also very poisonous, yet less deadly than the
milky juice which flows from the slightest incision made in the tree's
thick and grayish bark. This juice, received into the stomach, or
introduced into the blood through a wound, slays the victim with awful
quickness. If it do but touch the skin, it excites a violent irritation,
and raises swellings or boils of the worst description. The very vapour
which it emits causes a painful itching in the eyes, the lips, and the
nostrils. It was formerly asserted that to sleep under the shade of a
Manchineal tree was certain death; but the naturalist Jacquin, in the
interests of science, courageously made the experiment, and proved the
falsity of the story.
The Manchineal is not unfrequently confounded with other poisonous
Euphorbiaceæ, as the _Sapium aucuparium_ and the _Excoecaria
agallochia_, which flourish in very nearly the same regions. The
_Excoecaria_, it is said, is not less dangerous than the Manchineal.
It owes its name (_ex_, and _coecus_, "blind") to the circumstance (or
the fable) that some European sailors, while felling wood in the forest,
having accidentally struck with their axe a tree of this species, were
blinded by the milky juice which sprang into their eyes.
By a kind of compensation, the Tropical Forests, which contain so many
poisonous plants, produce also a great number of the highest utility to
man. Some offer him efficient remedies against the diseases which beset
his frame; others nourish him with the fecula of their roots or the
delicious substance of their fruits; others again supply him with
textile fibres, dyeing or resinous materials, and woods which the artist
and the artisan convert to numerous uses. This vegetable wealth has been
widely distributed over South America. It will suffice to indicate a few
of its more notable sources.
If we direct our attention to medicinal plants, we shall probably find
none more precious than the Quinquina, whose bark is the most effective
of all febrifuges, and which is endowed, moreover, with very valuable
tonic and depuratory properties. Sir Samuel Baker, in his recent address
to the British Association at Dundee, pronounced it the traveller's best
friend, the powerful weapon with which he could securely enter the
African wilderness, and successfully contend against its demon-host of
fevers and agues. The Quinquinas (genus, _Cinchona_; family, _Rubiaceæ_)
are trees or evergreen shrubs with large and handsome leaves, and
flowers whose form and fragrance remind one of the lilac. They are
diffused over the two slopes, but chiefly along the eastern slope, of
the Andean Cordilleras, in the republics of Venezuela, New Granada,
Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia. The traveller meets them occasionally in
picturesque groups or thickets which the Peruvians call _Manchas_
(spots); but they are more frequently scattered in immense forests.
What of the lactiferous and resinous plants? South America is the native
land of the trees whence we extract the resinous gums called "Animé
d'Amérique," "White Amber," and "Soft Brazilian Copal," and the "Hevea
Guyanensis," which furnishes the greater portion of the caoutchouc
imported into Europe.
Caoutchouc was described for the first time in 1736, by the scientific
travellers Bouguer and La Condamine, members of a Commission despatched
to Peru by the Parisian "Académie des Sciences," to measure an arc of
the meridian. A few years later, the engineer Fresneau, who resided for
a long time in Guiana, collected, with the assistance of a native, ample
information in reference to caoutchouc and the tree which produced it.
Finally, in 1768, was found in a work by the traveller Aublet on the
Flora of Guiana, the description and figure of the _Hevea_. This tree
attains a height of 50 to 70 feet. The almond enclosed in the kernels of
its fruits is white, of a very agreeable taste, and much esteemed by the
Indians, who also extract from it an oil for seasoning their food.
The Banana, the American Agave, the Bamboo, and divers Palm-trees supply
the inhabitants of South America with suitable materials for the
fabrication of various tissues, from the finest and most brilliant linen
cloth to the rude mats which ornament the cabin of the savage. Trees
bearing fruits or edible roots are innumerable. To the Bananas and
Cocoa-trees which I have already mentioned, we may add, as the most
useful, the Maranteas or Canneas, especially the _Maranta arundinacea_,
_M. alloya_, and _M. nobilis_, whose roots, rasped and washed,
constitute the popular and valuable farina so widely known as
_Arrow-root_; the Guavas (_Psidium pyriferum_, and _P. pomiferum_),
whose gilded fruits contain a succulent and perfumed pulp; the Papaw
tree (_Carica papaya_), resembling the Palm in its port and aspect, and
also loaded with large yellowish fruit, whose flesh is exceedingly
savoury and aromatic. The Papaw, moreover, enjoys some extremely
remarkable properties; thus, its milky juice exhales, when burnt, an
ammoniacal odour, and chemical analysis has recognized therein the
presence of _fibrine_. Mix some of this juice in water, plunge into the
mixture fresh hard meat, and in a few moments it will become exquisitely
tender. The very exhalations of the tree operate in the same manner, and
the inhabitants of the regions where it flourishes suspend to its
branches such meat and poultry as they wish to soften.
* * * * *
[Illustration: FLORA OF THE NEW WORLD.
1. Papaw Tree (_Papaya Sativa_)
2. Great American Cocoa-Nut Tree.
3. Mangrove (_Rhizophora mangle_).]
The immense forests of Brazil and Guiana are for the whole world an
inexhaustible storehouse of woods for dyeing and cabinet work. They
spread their dense masses of foliage along the borders of the sea, where
the Mangroves (_Rhizophora mangle_) plunge their adventitious roots into
the mud inundated by the surging tides of those regions, and form a kind
of impenetrable palisade, behind which grow in infinite variety trees of
the costliest timber. Such are the _Swieteniæ_, or Mahogany trees;
the _Ferolia Guyanensis_, which supplies the well-known rose or satin
wood; the _Jacaranda Brasiliensis_, and the _Dalbergia_, which yield the
violet ebony; the _Sterculia acuminata_, whose flowers exhale a foetid
odour, and whose timber, called "stinkwood," is nevertheless held in
high esteem on account of its durability, the fineness of its texture,
and the excellent polish of which it is susceptible. Nor must we forget
the _Cæsalpineæ_, whose woods are impregnated with a red colouring
matter which varies in tint according to the species, and which are
largely employed by the dyer under the names of "Brazil wood" and
"Pernambuco wood." A great number of other woods which we procure from
these countries, and which are in daily use in cabinet work, toys,
marquetry, and dyeing, belong to vegetable species as yet undetermined.
We might, however, almost venture to assert that whatever tree you
accidentally and at haphazard struck down in these forests, either its
timber, bark, or roots would be found capable of being utilized.
* * * * *
I have not mentioned, among the species proper to the Forests of the New
World, those which are common with our own, and which abound upon
elevated lands. The extraordinary height to which not only isolated
mountains, but whole districts rise, in the vicinity of the Equator, and
the low temperature which is the consequence of this elevation, provide
the inhabitant of the Torrid Zone with a remarkable spectacle. For
while, as Humboldt remarks, he may look around him upon groves of palms
and bananas, he also sees those vegetable forms which are regarded as
more particularly belonging to the countries of the North. Cypresses,
firs, and oaks, barberries and alders, closely resembling our own, cover
the table-lands of Southern Mexico and that part of the Andes which the
Equator traverses. Thus Nature allows the denizen of the Torrid Zone to
see, without quitting his native land, all the vegetable forms of the
earth, at the same time that from one pole to the other the entire vault
of heaven reveals to his gaze its luminous worlds.
I conclude my account of the South American Forests with a picture
taken from the interesting volume of Mr. Bates, and drawn on the bank of
a forest stream flowing into the Murncupé. "A glorious vegetation," he
says, "piled up to an immense height, clothes the banks of the creek,
which traverses a broad tract of semi-cultivated ground, and the varied
masses of greenery are lighted up with the sunny glow. Open
palm-thatched huts peep forth at intervals from amidst groves of banana,
mango, cotton, and papaw trees and palms. Both banks are masked by lofty
walls of green drapery, here and there a break occurring. The projecting
boughs of the trees are hung with natural garlands and festoons, and an
endless variety of creeping plants clothe the water frontage, some of
which, especially the Bignonias, are ornamented with large,
gaily-coloured flowers. Art could not have assorted together beautiful
vegetable forms so harmoniously as is here done by Nature. Palms, as
usual, form a large proportion of the lower trees; some of them,
however, shoot up their slim stems to a height of sixty feet or more,
and wave their branches of nodding plumes between you and the sky. One
kind of palm, the Pashiúba (_Iriartea Exorhiza_), which grows here in
greater abundance than elsewhere, is especially attractive. It is not
one of the tallest kinds, for when full-grown its height is not more,
perhaps, than forty feet; the leaves are somewhat less drooping, and the
leaflets much broader than in other species, so that they have not that
feathery appearance which those of some palms have, but still they
possess their own peculiar beauty."
Probably there is no richer field on earth for the naturalist, the poet,
or the artist than the virgin forest;--
"To mark the structure of a plant or tree,
And all fair things of earth, how fair they be!"
CHAPTER V.
ANIMAL LIFE IN THE TROPICAL FORESTS:--THE ELEPHANT--THE RHINOCEROS.
Some thousands of years ago--no long period in the history of creation,
though so far outstripping the written records of man--gigantic animals,
with huge trunks and ivory tusks, forming the family of Proboscideæ,
were distributed throughout all the northern regions of Europe, Asia,
and America.
Of this family the most ancient and colossal representative is the
_Dinotherium_, which appears to have flourished in the Miocene period of
the Tertiary epoch, and a skull of which was disinterred at Eppelsheim,
in Hesse Darmstadt, in 1836, measuring about four feet in length and
three in breadth; whence Cuvier inferred that the total length of the
animal was probably eighteen feet. This pachyderm, which far surpassed
in size the largest living elephant, had a comparatively short trunk,
and tusks inserted in front of the lower jaw. Such a lower jaw could
hardly have been otherwise than cumbrous and inconvenient to the
quadruped if he lived on land. No such disadvantage, as Dr. Buckland
remarks,[171] would have attended this structure in a large animal
destined to live in water; and the aquatic habits of the family of
Tapirs, to which the Dinotherium was most nearly allied, render it
probable that, like them, it was an inhabitant of fresh-water lakes and
rivers.
Two other kinds of Proboscidians, the _Mastodon_ and the _Mammoth_,
belong to the Pleiocene period, the last of the Tertiary epoch, and to
the Intermediate or Glacial deposits, which immediately preceded the
modern epoch. The Mastodon only differed essentially from the Elephant
in his dental apparatus. His molar teeth were covered with conical
projections, whence his name; he had two small tusks, planted in the
lower jaw like those of the Dinotherium, but bent forward, and two
others in the upper jaw, having the same direction, but being of a
prodigious length. Buffon named it the "Animal of the Ohio," because its
fossil remains were discovered on the banks of that great river. They
have also been found in other parts of North America, and particularly
in the saline morass known as Big-bone Lick, in the northern districts
of Kentucky. Several skeletons, almost perfect, have been excavated at a
moderate depth, and some of them in a vertical position, as if the
animals had been stricken with death while standing, and suddenly
engulfed in the mud.
Many curious fables are told by the Indians in reference to this extinct
quadruped. The Shawnee Indians believe that contemporary with them lived
a race of men of proportionate dimensions, and that the Great Being
destroyed both the one and the other with thunderbolts. Those of
Virginia state that the "Great Man on High" slew this colossal genus,
because it was exterminating the animals created for the use of man, and
that none escaped but the hugest bull, who, having been wounded by the
celestial bolts, fled towards the great lakes, in whose solitudes he
wanders to this very day. The Indians of Canada and Louisiana designate
the Mastodon by the name of "Father of the Bulls," probably on account
of the bones of cattle disinterred with his own.
The Mammoth (_Elephas primigenius_) is known to us only by the fossil
remains which have been discovered embedded in the glacial deposits of
the Intermediate epoch. The first discovery took place in 1799, under
circumstances which are thus recorded in the _Zoologist_.
In 1799, a Tungusian fisherman observed, in a bank on the shore of the
Frozen Ocean, at the mouth of the river Lena, a shapeless mass almost
enveloped in ice, and he was quite unable to determine what it might be.
In the following year a larger portion of this mass became visible, but
the fisherman was still unable to discover its nature. Towards the end
of the following summer, however, one of the tusks and an entire side of
a fossilized animal were exposed. But it was not until the fifth year
from its discovery, when the ice had melted sooner than usual, that the
enormous animal became entirely detached from the bank or cliff in which
it was first observed, and came thundering down upon a sand-bank below.
In the month of March 1804, the fisherman extracted the tusks, which
were nine feet six inches long, and together weighed 360 pounds, and
sold them at Yakoutsk for fifty roubles. Two years afterwards, Mr.
Adams, a traveller, visited the animal, and found it much mutilated. The
Yakoutes residing in the neighbourhood had cut away the flesh to feed
their dogs; wild beasts had also eaten a great quantity of it.
Nevertheless, with the exception of a fore-leg, the skeleton was entire;
the other bones being still held together by ligaments and portions of
skin. The head was covered with dried skin; one of the ears was entire,
and furnished with a tuft of hairs; the pupil of the eye was still to be
distinguished; the brain was in the skull, but somewhat dried; the lower
lip had been gnawed by animals, the upper one was entirely gone, and the
teeth were consequently exposed; the neck was furnished with a long
mane; the skin was covered with long hair and a reddish wool; the
portion of skin still remaining was so heavy that two men could scarcely
carry it; according to Mr. Adams, more than thirty pounds' weight of
hair and wool was collected from the wet sand into which it had been
trodden by the white bears while devouring the flesh. This skeleton is
now preserved in the Museum of the Academy of St. Petersburg. The height
of the creature is about nine feet, and its extreme length to the tip of
the tail about sixteen feet.
A second carcass was afterwards discovered on the bank of the Asaleïa,
which empties its waters into the Frozen Sea, by the traveller
Sarytcheff. It was standing upright, and wholly covered with its skin
and fur. Finally, a third has been recently found in the same region,
and the Museum at Paris possesses a portion of its skin, with a tuft of
wool, and some relics of the mane.
The Mammoth, therefore, would seem to be a link connecting the past and
the present worlds, a being whose body has outlived its destination.
Evidently it was adapted to brave the winters of a boreal clime; its
long, warm, and woolly coat forming an admirable defence against the
severest cold. It probably inhabited the icy plains, and the banks of
the lakes and rivers; its food consisting of lichens, reeds, and the
young shoots of the willows and other trees which thrive in moist
situations.
The Mammoth naturally leads us to an examination of his descendant and
congener, the Elephant; the largest and strongest, the most sagacious
and docile of all living animals.
Elephants, of which only two species at present exist, the Asiatic and
African, are natives of tropical regions, where they prefer to inhabit
the depths of the forests, quitting their umbrageous recesses only at
night, in search of food, or to quench their thirst in the nearest
stream.
The whole form of the animal suggests the idea of unwieldy strength. His
head is large, with extremely small eyes, and very large and pendulous
ears; he has an arched back, and a huge thick body, which rests upon
clumsy and shapeless legs; his feet are slightly divided into five
rounded heaps; the upper jaw is armed with two enormous projecting
tusks, which measure in many instances six or seven feet; and he is
endowed with an extraordinary proboscis or trunk, of such strength that
it can uproot trees, and of such delicacy that it can gather grass. This
organ, nearly eight feet in length, conveys the food to the mouth, and
pumps up the enormous draughts of water, which by its recurvature are
turned into and driven down the capacious throat, or showered over the
body. Its length supplies the place of a long neck, which would have
been incompatible with the support of the large head and weighty tusks.
A glance at the head will show the thickness and strength of the trunk
at its insertion; and the massy arched bones of the face and thick
masculine neck, are wonderfully adapted for supporting and working this
powerful and marvellous instrument.
The Asiatic Elephant (_Elephas maximus_ of Linné, _Elephas Indicus_ of
Cuvier) has small ears and tusks. A head elongated in height, and
terminating in a kind of double pyramid. His hide is a clear brown
colour. This species includes several varieties; that of Indo-China is
remarkable for its prodigious height, which sometimes attains fifteen
feet, and for a skin marked with brown spots upon a clear gray ground.
The islands of the Indian Archipelago likewise contain several varieties
of elephants, which experts can easily distinguish from one another. In
every species are found the _albinos_, or white elephants, which receive
the marked veneration of every Indian race, and particularly of those of
Siam and Pegu.
The African Elephant (_Elephas Africanus_) differs from the preceding in
the structure of his grinder teeth, in the length of his tusks, which
are enormous, and in his ears, whose trumpet is also of great
dimensions. He was formerly met with throughout all the African
continent, and was much employed in war by the Carthaginians and
Egyptians. From the northern regions of Africa he has now disappeared,
but large herds still haunt the whole southern division, from the
Senegal to the Cape, and the eastern districts, as far north as
Abyssinia. He is also found in all the African interior, whose
inhabitants deal in ivory as the staple of their commerce. His height is
equal to that of the Asiatic elephant, and the habits of the two species
are identical.
Elephants live in the forests, gathering in troops of from thirty to
about one hundred individuals, and as they require a very extensive area
of pasturage, it is said that they pitilessly expel from their domains
all other animals which trespass therein to share the product.
Each herd marches under the guidance of an acknowledged chief. When they
sally forth from their retreats to devastate a field, or to wander in
quest of fresh pastures, they observe a very regular order of march; the
young and the females occupying the centre, the males assemble round
them in a circle. If danger threatens, the little ones take refuge under
the breast of their mothers, who fold their trunks about them.
The young elephant is suckled for two years, and during that period
attains the stature of four feet and a half. At the end of the third
year he is nearly six feet high. He continues to grow, but less rapidly,
until twenty-two or twenty-four years old. The female adults measure
generally from seven to nine feet in height, and the males from ten feet
and a half to twelve. As may be inferred from the tardiness of his
growth, the elephant enjoys the privilege of longevity. He has been
known to live in captivity to the age of 120 or 130 years; but Cuvier
was of opinion that in his free and wild condition he might well number
nearly a couple of centuries.
The Africans hunt the elephant for the sake of his ivory and flesh; in
India, and the isles of the Indian Ocean, to reduce them to subjection.
In Africa, for many negro populations, ivory and "ebony wood" (an
euphuism by which the slave-dealers designate their black slaves) are
the sole articles of commerce, and the majority of the English, Dutch,
and French colonists carry on a considerable traffic in elephants'
teeth. The negroes excavate wide pits which they cover over with
branches; and the elephants falling into them are precipitated headlong
upon sharpened stakes; or they kill them either with arrows, assegays,
or musketry. Hunting them with spears is truly a ferocious pastime. The
poor elephant only succumbs after receiving so great a number of
projectiles that his body resembles an enormous porcupine. He rarely
turns upon his aggressors; he seeks to fly; he fills the air with
plaintive wailings; the female throws her huge bulk between her young
ones and the enemy; the male sometimes rushes furiously upon his
assailants, and woe to the latter if he overtake them; he crushes them
under his hoofs, he pierces them with his tusks, or seizes them with his
trunk, and dashes them upon the earth a shapeless and bleeding mass. But
nimble and experienced hunters easily elude his charge, whose onset he
is prevented from moderating by his weight, or from rapidly changing its
direction.
[Illustration: HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA.]
But firearms, and especially the recently perfected rifles, are
assuredly the best weapons to employ against the leviathan. With a
Westley-Richards, for instance, a good marksman, aiming at the
shoulder-joint or the ear, is certain to bring down his game; he may
post himself at a distance, and avoid exposure, while the victim is
saved from a cruel agony.
Ivory is not the only valuable product which the elephant yields; his
hide, very thick and very tenacious, can be utilized for many purposes.
The bucklers made of it by the negroes are scarcely less precious than
the shield of Ajax, which was formed of a bull's hide sevenfold. The
animal's flesh is also eaten, although too tough and too strongly
flavoured for an European palate.
In India and the Indian islands the chase is carried on to make
prisoners, and not victims. Its most remarkable feature is the important
and almost indispensable assistance which the tame elephants render man
against their wild brethren, zealously aiding to reduce them into
slavery; now serving as baits to beguile and attract, and now as
gendarmes, or rather as convict-warders, to compel their obedience. In
Ceylon, elephant-hunting is almost an affair of State; it is like a
national war, in which the Government appeals to the goodwill of the
population generally, both Europeans and natives.
As soon as it is known that a troop or _horde_ of elephants has
assembled in a forest, the natives set to work, and with trunks of trees
fixed in the ground and supported by transversal bars and buttresses,
construct a vast palisaded enclosure, or _corral_, whose entrance forms
a kind of gullet so narrow that the animals can only enter one by one,
and once drawn into it are unable to return. This being accomplished, a
thousand men, Europeans or Cingalese, surround the forest; they enclose
the herd in a circle which incessantly contracts, and drive them before
them by waving their torches, and keeping up a grand _tintamarre_ of
tamtams, trumpets, and musket-shots. The frightened animals can find no
other avenue of escape than the entrance to the corral, where are
placed, moreover, as an attraction, some females trained to act as
decoys.
When all, or nearly all the herd, has been driven into the enclosure,
the entrance is strongly and firmly closed with ropes and beams. The
elephants, perceiving themselves caught in a trap, naturally endeavour
to effect their escape by the way they entered. A sufficient number of
hunters then place themselves along each side of the avenue, and a few,
mounted on the decoys, are stationed at its extremity. The moment that
one of the captives has got entangled in it, his retreat is cut off by
means of thick planks piled across the palisade, and he is allowed to
make his way towards the entrance, which is also blocked up. There he
encounters the decoys, which force him, by striking him with their
trunks, to fall back against a neighbouring tree, to which he is
speedily bound with ropes. This first operation accomplished, the
females are led back to the corral, and the game is renewed, until all
the animals have undergone the same fate, and each of them is thralled
to a tree in the forest. Nothing now remains but to accustom them to a
life of servitude; and this is done by depriving them of food for a
short time, then administering it in small quantities, and proceeding
from the articles they like the least to those they prize the most. The
privation at first enfeebles them, and consequently calms their
irritation, while they feel the greater gratitude afterwards for the
alleviation which is so readily afforded them. This gratitude, and,
still more, the dependance in which they find themselves upon man, who
at his supreme pleasure grants or refuses their food, renders them in a
few days docile and tractable. Thus their docility, and the important
services which they render, mainly arise in the overmastering fear which
man inspires in them.
"It is remarkable," says Boitard, "that the elephant is not and never
has been a domestic animal, but a captive who only obeys through terror.
However tame he may be, he never fails to escape into the woods to
resume his savage life if an opportunity arises. The need, therefore,
arises that on a long march he shall have his driver, or _mahoud_, on
his back, to guide him, threaten him, and prevent him from taking to
flight. His love of liberty is as great as that of the wildest animals,
and in the female elephants it even overpowers maternal love; therefore,
when suckling their young, they are never released from their chains,
for experience has proved that they will abandon them without regret
if circumstances should enable them to effect their escape."
[Illustration: A CORRAL IN CEYLON.]
The moral and intellectual qualities of the elephant have been greatly
exaggerated. As far as his morality is concerned, we must pronounce him
a cowardly, pettish, and rancorous animal, which retains a much livelier
recollection of every injury done him than of the benefits he may have
received. In an intellectual point of view he is certainly inferior to
the ape and the dog, but he is superior to the Carnaria, as well as to
most of the Herbivora. His faculties, perhaps, may be most justly
compared to those of the horse, which would certainly have exhibited as
much intelligence if Nature had gifted him with a trunk; for we must
never forget that the development of an animal's faculties greatly
depends upon the perfection of his organs. Again, the horse is
susceptible of a complete domestication, while the elephant, as Boitard
has remarked, is a captive, ever dreading, never loving his master, and
eagerly awaiting a favourable moment to escape from him.
* * * * *
After the Elephant, the chief of the animals inhabiting the forests is
the Rhinoceros, ranged with him by Linné in the order of _Belluæ_ (or
enormous beasts), by Cuvier in that of Pachyderms, and by De Blainville
in that of Gravigrades.