Page:The naturalist on the River Amazons 1863 v1.djvu/69

 can convey no adequate idea of it. The reader who has visited Kew may form some notion by conceiving a vegetation like that in the great palm-house spread over a large tract of swampy ground, but he must fancy it mingled with large exogenous trees similar to our oaks and elms covered with creepers and parasites, and figure to himself the ground encumbered with fallen and rotting trunks, branches, and leaves; the whole illuminated by a glowing vertical sun, and reeking with moisture.

In these swampy shades we were afraid at each step of treading on some venomous reptile. On this first visit, however, we saw none, although I afterwards found serpents common here. We perceived no signs of the larger animals and saw very few birds. Insects were more numerous, especially butterflies. The most conspicuous species was a large, glossy, blue and black Morpho (M. Achilles, of Linnæus), which measures six inches or more in expanse of wings. It came along the alley at a rapid rate and with an undulating flight, but diverged into the thicket before reaching the spot where we stood. Another was the very handsome Papilio Sesostris, velvety black in colour, with a large silky green patch on its wings. It is the male only which is so coloured; the female being plainer, and so utterly unlike its partner, that it was always held to be a different species until proved to be the same. Several other kinds allied to this inhabit almost exclusively these moist shades. In all of them the males are brilliantly coloured and widely different from the females. Such are P. Æneas, P. Vertumnus, and P.