PDF - Wallace Online

EQUATORIAL VEGETATIONwhich the component parts exhibit in detail untold varietyland beauty."To the student of nature the vegetation of the tropics willever be of surpassing interest, whether for the variety offorms and structures which it presents, for the boundlessenergy with which the life of plants is therein manifested, orfor the help which it gives us in our search after the lawswhich have determined the production of such infinitelyvaried organisms. When, for the first time, the travellerwanders in these primeval forests, he can scarcely fail toexperience sensations of awe, akin to those excited by thetrackless ocean or the alpine snowfields. There is a vastness,a solemnity, a gloom, a sense of solitude and of humaninsignificance, which for a time overwhelm him and it is ;onlywhen the novelty of these feelings have passed away that heis able to turn his attention to the separate constituents thatcombine to produce these emotions, and examine the variedand beautiful forms of life which, in inexhaustible profusion,are spread around him.1 The Naturalist in Nicaragua, p. 56.