Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 1 (Stockdale).djvu/383

] Notwithstanding the shade of the surrounding trees, the elæcarpus monogynus was covered, even to its lowest branches, with fine flowers, elegantly figured. In those solitary forests, where the sun does not easily penetrate the thick foliage, it is astonishing to observe the vivid colours of several kinds of parasite plants, of the genus of orchydes, mostly cleaving to the trunks of the largest trees. In the least crowded spots, the tree of the aralia class, designated by the name of the cussonia thyrsiflora, adorned the forest with their large palmated leaves.

Among the great number of lizards which were busily pursuing insects, I admired the agility of that called the flying dragon (draco volans, Linn.). During the greatest heat of the day, that pretty animal rapidly darted from branch to branch, by extending two membranes in the form of wings, by means of which it sustains itself for some time in the air. Nature having denied it the muscles necessary for the vibration of this kind of wings, it can only spread them out to counteract the rapidity of its descent. With its hind feet it gives its body an impulse, which not interfering with its descensive motion, sometimes carries it forward a few toises, and to a height nearly equal to that of the place whence it darted.

In my return, I wished to take some branches from