The Malay archipelago : the land of the orang-utan ... - Wallace Online

374 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chaklevel then as they do now, having been separated by the subsidenceof the great plain which formerly connected themwith it.Persons who have formed tlie usual ideas of the vegetation ofthe tropics—who picture to themselves the abundance andbrilliancy of tlie flowers, and the magnificent appearance ofhundreds of forest trees covei-ed with masses of colouredblossoms, will be surprised to hear, that though vegetation inAru is highly luxuriant and varied, and would afford abundanceof fine and curious plants to adorn our hothouses, yet brightand showy flowers are, as a general rule, altogether absent, orso very scarce as to produce no effect whatever on the generalscenery. To givepai'ticulars : I have visited five distinct localitiesin the islands, I have wandered daily in the forests^ andhave passed along upwards of a hundred miles of coast andriver during a period of six months, much of it very fineweather, and till just as I was about to leave, I never saw asingle plant of sti-iking brilliancy or beauty, hardly a shrubequal to a hawthorn, or a climber equal to a honeysuckle ! Itcannot be said that the flowering season had not arrived, for Isaw many herbs, shrubs, and forest trees in flower, but all hadblossoms of a green or greenish-white tint, not superior to ourlime-trees. Here and there on tlie river banks and coasts are afew Convolvulaceae, not equal to our garden Ipomseas, and inthe deepest shades of the forest some fine scarlet and purpleZingibei'acefe, but so few and scattered as to be nothing amidthe mass of green and flowerless vegetation. Yet the nobleCycadaceiB and screw-pines, thirty or forty feet high, theelegant tree ferns, the lofty palms, and the variety of beautifuland curious plants which everywhere meet the eye, attest thewarmth and moisture of the tropics, and the fertility of tlie soil.It is true that Aru seemed to me exceptionally poor in flowers,but this is only an exaggeration of a general tropical feature ;for my whole experience in the equatorial regions of the westand the east has convinced me, that in the most luxuriant partsof the tropics, flowers are less abundant, on tlie average lessshowy, and are far less eflective in adding colour to the landscapethan in temperate climates. I have never seen in thetropics such brilliant masses of colour as even England can showin her furze-clad commons, her heatliery inountain-sides, herglades of wild hyacintlis, her fields of ]iopiDies, her meadows ofbuttercups and orchises—carjiets of yellow, purj^le, azure-blue,and fiery crimson, which the troj^ics can rarely exhibit. Wehave smaller masses of colour in our hawthorn and crab trees,our holly and inountain-ash, our broom, foxgloves, primroses,and purple vetclies, whicli clothe witli gay colours the wholelength and breadth of our land. These beauties are all common.They are characteristic of the country and the climate ; theyhave not to be sought for, but they gladden the eye at every