Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
and in the deepest shades of the forest some fine scarlet and purple Zingiberaceæ, but so few
and scattered as to be nothing amid the mass of green and flowerless vegetation. Yet the
noble Cycadaceæ and screw-pines, thirty or forty feet high, the elegant tree ferns, the lofty
palms, and the variety of beautiful and curious plants which everywhere meet the eye, attest
the warmth and moisture of the tropics, and the fertility of the 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 west and the east has con-
vinced me, that in the most luxuriant parts of the tropics, flowers are less abundant, on the
average less showy, and are far less effective in adding colour to the landscape than in tem-
perate climates. I have never seen in the tropics such brilliant masses of colour as even Eng-
land can show in her furze-clad commons, her heathery mountain-sides, her glades of wild
hyacinths, her fields of poppies, her meadows of buttercups and orchises—carpets of yel-
low, purple, azure-blue, and fiery crimson, which the tropics can rarely exhibit. We have
smaller masses of colour in our hawthorn and crab trees, our holly and mountain-ash, our
broom, foxgloves, primroses, and purple vetches, which clothe with gay colours the whole
length and breadth of our land. These beauties are all common. They are characteristic of
the country and the climate; they have not to be sought for, but they gladden the eye at every
step. In the regions of the equator, on the other hand, whether it be forest or savannah, a
sombre green clothes universal nature. You may journey for hours, and even for days, and
meet with nothing to break the monotony. Flowers are everywhere rare, and anything at all
striking is only to be met with at very distant intervals.
The idea that nature exhibits gay colours in the tropics, and that the general aspect of
nature is there more bright and varied in hue than with us, has even been made the founda-
tion of theories of art, and we have been forbidden to use bright colours in our garments,
and in the decorations of our dwellings, because it was supposed that we should be thereby
acting in opposition to the teachings of nature. The argument itself is a very poor one, since
it might with equal justice be maintained, that as we possess faculties for the appreciation of
colours, we should make up for the deficiencies of nature and use the gayest tints in those
regions where the landscape is most monotonous. But the assumption on which the argu-
ment is founded is totally false, so that even if the reasoning were valid, we need not be
afraid of outraging nature, by decorating our houses and our persons with all those gay hues
which are so lavishly spread over our fields and mountains, our hedges, woods, and mead-
ows.
It is very easy to see what has led to this erroneous view of the nature of tropical vegeta-
tion. In our hothouses and at our flower-shows we gather together the finest flowering plants
