ae, and
crawling nereidous animals of a multitude of forms, all fall out
together. Often as I recurred to a branch of the kelp, I never failed to
discover animals of new and curious structure. In Chiloe, where the kelp
does not thrive very well, the numerous shells, corallines, and
crustacea are absent; but there yet remain a few of the Flustraceae, and
some compound Ascidiae; the latter, however, are of different species
from those in Terra del Fuego: we here see the fucus possessing a wider
range than the animals which use it as an abode. I can only compare
these great aquatic forests of the southern hemisphere, with the
terrestrial ones in the intertropical regions.

"Yet if in any country a forest was destroyed, I do not believe nearly
so many species of animals would perish as would here, from the
destruction of the kelp. Amidst the leaves of this plant numerous
species of fish live, which nowhere else could find food or shelter:
with their destruction the many cormorants and other fishing birds, the
otters, seals, and porpoises, would soon perish also; and lastly, the
Fuegian savage, the miserable lord of this miserable land, would
redouble his cannibal feast, decrease in numbers, and perhaps cease to
exist."

I have alluded to the epiphytic plants which are so abundant in the
tropics, and which add so greatly to the gorgeousness of the forests
there. The most remarkable, or, at all events, the best known, of these
are the _Orchideae_, to which, as I have already had occasion more than
once to speak of them, I shall do little more than refer here. These
establish themselves in the forks, upon the greater limbs, and even in
the roughnesses of the bark of the trunk, adhering by their long,
interlaced roots, which look like knotted whip-cord, and forming their
bunches of psuedo-bulbs, whence their succulent, thick, but elegant
leaves project,--a great tuft of verdure; and their fantastic
flower-scapes wave in the air or droop with their weight of gorgeous
bloom. Thus they derive their nourishment from the humid atmosphere
alone, being dependent on the friendly tree only for support and
elevation. Humidity seems essential to the vigour of these and most
other forms of parasitic vegetation. In the deep shady, gloomy forests
of Java, which constitute the zone of vegetation around the base of the
mountains, these plants abound, where the air is heavy and damp with the
vapours that cannot ascend, and where the density o