In the Amazon grows the largest water lily in the world, _Victoria regia_, with giant leaves upon which a moderate-sized man may stand in safety. It produces a flower over a foot in diameter, and it is surrounded by a forest the like of which it is difficult to describe. H. H. Rusby, who spent two years in this region hunting for medicinal plants, has described the country a few hundred miles below where _Victoria_ was discovered. He writes: “Passing down the river Madeira to the lower Amazon, we come into a region of such grandeur in its vegetation that it is difficult of comprehension, even by one who is an eyewitness. Everything is in such proportion that one is apt in its size to miss the gigantic. Many of the trees of this region are undoubtedly many centuries old and appear to be good for many centuries more. Most of them have enormous buttresses at the base, and these buttresses often begin as high above the ground as are the tops of ordinary forest trees in our land. All are bound together with an impenetrable mass of tough vines. Running through these swamps are the most beautiful little bayous or canals. Nothing can exceed in interest and delight a day’s canoeing among these narrow waterways, although there is great danger that the inexperienced boatman will hopelessly lose his way. In the rainy season this river rises sixty feet or more above its low water mark and the boatman travels among the tree tops which a few weeks before were high above his head.” The abundant water supply in the rain forests results in an atmosphere saturated with water vapor and in some of them it is a common sight in the morning to see the forest rising out of an unbroken blanket of mist. As this dries up under the heat of the day, or if there occurs one of the torrential downpours to which such regions are frequently subjected, there rises from the forest in plainly visible waves a vast quantity of water vapor. It is this that has so often made them be described as steaming forests. The water requirements of the plants are more than supplied, nay, there is such a surfeit of available water in all these forests, that there are numberless devices to get rid of the excess. Dripping points to the leaves, already described in an earlier chapter, are common. But in addition many plants have wonderfully colored leaves such as Begonias, some relatives of our jack-in-the-pulpit belonging to the Arum family, many orchids, and other plants. The colored leaves in the predominantly dark green and gloomy rain forest, because of their greater absorption of light and consequently higher transpiration rate, are of decided advantage.