Manchurian Books

I had always imagined that in virgin forests the trees had
uncommonly thick and lofty trunks; I found that this was not here
the case. The vegetation is probably too luxuriant, and the larger
trunks are suffocated and rot beneath the masses of smaller trees,
bushes, creepers, and parasites. The two latter description of
plants are so abundant, and cover so completely the trees, that it
is often impossible to see even the leaves, much less the stems and
branches. Herr Schleierer, a botanist, assured us that he once
found upon one tree six and thirty different kinds of creepers and
parasites.
We gathered a rich harvest of flowers, plants, and insects, and
loitered along, enchanted with the magnificent woods and not less
beautiful views, which stretched over hill and dale, towards the sea
and its bays, and even as far as the capital itself.
Frequent truppas, {34a} driven by negroes, as well as the number of
pedestrians we met, eased our minds of every fear, and prevented us
from regarding it as at all remarkable that we were being
continually followed by a negro.


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