it in detail, the
profusion is even greater than we expected. In this damp tropical
region where there is ample heat and moisture, plant life comes
springing out of the earth with a prolificness which seems
inexhaustible. And when plant life is abundant, animal and insect
life is abundant also. So profuse, indeed, is the output of living
things that it seems simply wasteful. A single tree may produce
thousands of flowers. Each flower may have dozens of seeds. The
tree may go on flowering for a hundred or two hundred years. So a
single tree may produce millions of seeds, each capable of growing
into a forest giant like its parent.

With insect life the same profusion of life is evident. A single moth
or butterfly lays thousands of eggs. Mosquitoes, flies, gnats, midges,
leeches swarm in myriads upon myriads.

The abundance and superabundance of life is the first outstanding
--though it will prove not the most important--impression made upon
us by a contemplation of the forest as a whole.

* * *

Scarcely less striking than the abundance is the variety. Life does
not spring up from the earth in forms as alike one another as two
peas. Each individual plant or animal, however small, however
simple, has its own distinctive characteristics, There is variety and
variation everywhere. Variety in form, variety in colour, variety in
size, variety in character and habit. In size there is the difference
between the huge _terminalia_ towering up 200 feet high and the
tiny little potentilla; between the atlas moth 12 inches in spread and
the hardly discernible midges; between the elephant, massive
enough to trample its way through the densest forest, and the
humble little mouse peeping out of its hole in the ground. In colour
the difference ranges from the light blue of the forget-me-not to the
deep blue of the gentian; from the delicate pink of the dianthus to
the deep crimson of the rhododendron; from the brilliant hues of the
orchids to the dull browns and greens of inconspicuous tree flowers;
from the vivid light greens, yellows, and reds of the young leaves of
these tropical forests to the greyer green of their maturity; from the
smiting reds and blues of the most gaudy butterflies, beetles, and
dragon-flies to the modest browns of night-flying moths; from the
gorgeous colours of the parrots to the familiar black of crows; from
the yellow-striped tiger to the earth-coloured hare; from the
dark-skinned aborigine to the yel