PDF - Wallace Online

ii EQUATORIAL VEGETATION 247tree rots entirely away and the creeper remains tangled onthe ground. Sometimes branches only fall and carry a portionof the creeper tightly stretched to an adjoining tree ;atother times the whole tree is arrested by a neighbour, towhich the creeper soon transfers itself in order to reach theupper light.When by the fall of a branch the creepers areleft hanging in the air, they may be blown about by thewind and catch hold of trees growing up beneath them, andthus become festooned from one tree to another. Whenthese accidents and changes have been again and againrepeated the climber may have travelled very far from itsparent stem, and may have mounted to the tree tops anddescended again to the earth several times over. Only inthisway does it seem possible to explain the wonderfullycomplex manner in which these climbing plants wander upand down the forest as ifguided by the strangest caprices, orhow they become so crossed and tangled together in thewildest confusion.The variety in the length, thickness, strength, and toughnessof these climbers enables the natives of tropical countriesto put them to various uses. Almost every kind of cordageis supplied by them. Some will stand in water without rotting,and are used for cables, for lines to which are attachedfish -traps, and to bind and strengthen the wooden anchorsused generally in the East. Boats and even large sailingvessels are built, whose planks are entirely fastened togetherby this kind of cordage skilfully applied to internal ribs. Forthe better kinds of houses, smooth and uniform varieties arechosen, so that the beams and rafters can be bound togetherwith neatness, strength, and uniformity, as is especially observableamong the indigenes of the Amazonian forests. Whenbaskets of great strength are required special kinds of creepersare used ;and to serve almost every purpose for which weshould need a rope or a chain, the tropical savage adopts someone of the numerous forest-ropes which long experience hasshown to have qualities best adapted for it. Some are smoothand supple ;some are tough and will bear twisting or tying;some will last longest in salt water, others in fresh ;one isuninjured by the heat and smoke of fires, while another isbitter or otherwise prejudicialto insect enemies.