Transcriber's Note This eBook is dedicated to the memory of Joe Cooper, a long-time volunteer with Distributed Proofreaders. Italic font is indicated by _underscores_. TROPICAL NATURE, AND OTHER ESSAYS. [Illustration] TROPICAL NATURE, AND OTHER ESSAYS. BY ALFRED R. WALLACE. AUTHOR OF “THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO,” “THE GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS,”“CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE THEORY OF NATURAL SELECTION,” ETC., ETC. London: MACMILLAN AND CO. 1878. [_The Right of Translation and Reproduction is Reserved._] LONDON: R. CLAY, SONS, AND TAYLOR, BREAD STREET HILL. THE TROPICS. Land of the Sun! where joyous green-robed Spring And leaf-crowned Summer deck the Earth for ever; No Winter stern their sweet embrace to sever And numb to silence every living thing, But bird and insect ever on the wing, Flitting ’mid forest glades and tangled bowers, While the life-giving orb’s effulgent beams Through all the circling year call forth the flowers. Here graceful palms, here luscious fruits have birth; The fragrant coffee, life-sustaining rice, Sweet canes, and wondrous gums, and odorous spice; While Flora’s choicest treasures crowd the teeming earth. Beside each cot the golden Orange stands, And broad-leaved Plantain, pride of Tropic lands. ENGLAND. Sweet changing Seasons! Winter cold and stern, Fair Spring with budding leaf and opening flower, And Summer when the sun’s creative power Brings leafy groves and glades of feathery fern, The glorious blossoms of sweet-scented May, The flowery hedgerows and the fragrant hay, And the wide landscape’s many-tinted sheen. Then Autumn’s yellow woods and days serene; And when we’ve gathered in the harvest’s treasure, The long nights bring us round the blazing hearth, The chosen haunt of every social pleasure. Land of green fields and flowers! Thou givest birth To shifting scenes of beauty, which outshine Th’ unvarying splendours of the Tropic’s clime. PREFACE.