s in bloom,--a forest where the woodman's axe has not
yet echoed, where the colonist has hardly hewed out a single clearing,--
a vast primeval forest,--the largest in the world.

How large, do you ask? I can hardly tell you. Are you thinking of
Epping, or the New Forest? True, these are large woods, and have been
larger at one time. But if you draw your ideas of a great forest from
either of these you must prepare yourself for a startling announcement--
and that is, that the forest through which I am going to take you is _as
big as all Europe_! There is one place where a straight line might be
drawn across this forest that would measure the enormous length of two
thousand six hundred miles! And there is a point in it from which a
circle might be described, with a diameter of more than a thousand
miles, and the whole area included within this vast circumference would
be found covered with an unbroken forest!

I need scarce tell you what forest I allude to, for there is none other
in the world of such dimensions--none to compare with that vast,
trackless forest that covers the valley of the mighty Amazon!

And what shall we see in travelling through this tree-covered expanse?
Many a strange form of life--both vegetable and animal. We shall see
the giant "ceiba" tree, and the "zamang," and the "caoba," twined by
huge parasites almost as thick as their own trunks, and looking as
though they embraced but to crush them; the "juvia," with its
globe-shaped fruits as large as the human head; the "cow-tree," with its
abundant fountains of rich milk; the "seringa," with its valuable gum--
the caoutchouc of commerce; the "cinchona," with its fever-killing bark;
the curious "volador," with its winged seeds; the wild indigo, and the
arnatto. We shall see palms of many species--some with trunks smooth
and cylindrical, others covered with thorns, sharp and thickly set--some
with broad entire leaves, others with fronds pinnate and feathery, and
still others whose leaves are of the shape of a fan--some rising like
naked columns to the height of an hundred and fifty feet, while others
scarcely attain to the standard of an ordinary man.

On the water we shall see beautiful lilies--the snow-white _nymphs_, and
the yellow _nuphars_. We shall see the _Victoria regia_ covering the
pool with its massive wax-like flowers, and huge circular leaves of
bronze green. We shall see tall flags like Saracen spears, and the dark
green culms