But it is principally among the _Graminaceæ_ that the greatest difference is observable. Of these there are a great number which attain no larger dimensions than our _Bromus_, forming masses of grass only distinguished from European species by their stems being more branchy, and the leaves larger. Others shoot up to the height of the forest tree, with a graceful habit. At first they are as upright as a lance, terminating in a point, with only one leaf, resembling a large scale, at each internode; when these fall, a crown of short branches springs from their axils, bearing the true leaves. The stems of the bamboos are thus decorated with verticils at regular intervals. It is to the _Lianes_ principally that tropical forests are indebted for their picturesque beauty, and these are the source of the most varied effects. Our own honeysuckle and the ivy give but a faint idea of the appearance presented by the crowd of climbing and creeping plants belonging to many different families. These are _Bignoniaceæ_, _Bauhinia_, _Cissus_, and _Hippocrateaceæ_, and while they all require a support, they each have notwithstanding a bearing peculiar to themselves. One of those climbing parasites will encircle the trunk of the largest trees to a prodigious height, the marks left by the old leaves seeming in their lozenge-shaped design to resemble the skin of a serpent. From this parasitic stem spring large leaves of a glossy green, while its lower parts give birth to slender roots, which descend again to the earth straight as a plumb-line. The tree which bears the Spanish name of _Cipo-Matador_, “the murderous Liane,” has a trunk so slight that it can not support itself alone, but must find support on a neighboring tree more robust than itself. It presses against its stem, aided by its aerial roots, which embrace it at intervals like so many flexible osiers, by which it secures itself and defies the most terrible hurricanes. Some _Lianes_ resemble waving ribbons, others are twisted in large spirals, or hang in festoons, spreading between the trees, and darting from one to another, twining round them, and forming masses of stem, leaves, and flowers, where the observer often finds it difficult to assign to each species what belongs to it. Thousands of different species of shrubs, _Melastomaceæ_, _Boraginaceæ_, _peppers_, and _Acanthaceæ_, springing up round the roots of large trees, fill up the intervals left between them. Species of _Tillandsia_ and orchids, with flowers of strange and whimsical shape, make their appearance, and these often serve as supports to other parasites. Numerous brooks generally run through these forests, communicating their own freshness to the forest vegetation, presenting to the tired traveler delicious and limpid water, while the banks of the stream are carpeted with mosses, lycopodiums, and ferns, from the midst of which spring begonias, with delicate and succulent stems, unequal leaves, and flesh-colored flowers.