Untitled - The Alfred Russel Wallace Website

AMAZONIAN VEGETATION 355
which spring up to replace the Primitive Forests
destroyed by man, and, notwithstanding their
weedy character, consist chiefly of shrubs and trees ;
a fifth in the savannas or campos - - grassy or
scrubby knolls, or glades,
or hollows (dried -up
lakes), which bear a very small proportion indeed
to the vast extent of woodland in the Amazon
valley proper, but towards its northern and southern
borders compete with the wroods for the possession
of the ground, and in the centre of Venezuela enlarge
to interminable grassy llanos or plains.
From an elevated site that should embrace the
landscape on all sides to the extreme limit of vision,
as, for instance, from the heights at the confluence
of the Rio Negro and Amazon, or, better still, from
one of the steep granite rocks that overlook the
noble forests of the Casiquiari, a practised eye would
distinguish the various kinds of forest by their
aspect alone. The Virgin Forests are distinct
enough by the sombre foliage of the densely-packed,
lofty trees, out of which stand, like the cupolas,
spires, and turrets of a large city, the dome-shaped
or pyramidal or flat-topped crowns of still loftier
trees, overtopping even the tallest palms, both palms
and trees being more or less interwoven with stout,
gaily-flowering lianas ; the White Forests by the
low, neat-growing, and thinly-set trees and bushes,
with scarcely any lianas - - the Palms few, but
peculiar, and often odd-looking on a near view
by the greater abundance of Ferns, especially on
the trees, and sometimes of terrestrial Aroids and
Cyclanths ;
the Recent Forests by their low, irregular,
tangled growth, paler foliage, and general weedy
aspect ; the Riparial Forests, even where the water