"Finding the monster did not follow them, they gathered courage and reassembled, but stood at a safe distance, ready to run again if necessary. They sent forward their priest to examine the animal; he surveyed it carefully, and then informed his followers that it was not an animal, but a machine, in which there was a veritable demon chained, and compelled to work the crank which propelled it. The explanation was sufficient; the good priest knew it was hopeless to attempt to enlighten them on the uses of steam, and found the demon story the shortest way out of the difficulty. It is just possible, though, that he was not versed in natural philosophy, and his explanation may have been the honest result of his observation."
At several points, as they passed along, Fred observed men cutting away the bushes by the roadside, and, in reply to a question, he learned that the growth of the tropical forest was so rapid that men were kept busy all along the route in keeping it down, so that it would not touch the passing trains. "But it is not without its advantages," said their informant; "what it costs to keep down the rapid vegetation is more than compensated by the interlacing of the roots through the road-bed so that it makes a powerful resistance to the water which rushes down the slopes after the heavy rains. Many a serious injury to the road has been prevented by this mass of roots."
THE ESPIRITU SANTO FLOWER.
Their attention was called to flowers that grew in the forest, and the eyes of the youths were constantly occupied with the varieties of trees and plants that they passed in their ride. There were palms and mangroves, canes, ferns, orchids, and creeping, climbing, and hanging plants almost without number. There was hardly a tree without a parasite, and many trees were covered from the base to the topmost limb with foliage that was not their own. In some cases the trees were actually killed by the parasites that clung to them, and reminded our friends of the picture of a deer strangled by a serpent.
Fred asked for the famous product of the Isthmus, a member of the orchid family, Peristera Elata, known as "Flor del Espiritu Santo," or "Flower of the Holy Spirit." It was pointed out to them, and, at the youth's request, they stopped long enough to gather a few specimens.
The youths greatly admired the flower, and when they saw it neither of them wondered at its name nor the reverence with which it is regarded in Central American countries. It has a white blossom resembling the tulip, and in the inside of the blossom is the figure of a dove. It needs no imagination to show the form of the bird; there it rests, with its wings drooping at its sides and its head bent forward so that the bill almost touches the breast; the body of the dove is of a snowy white, while the bill is tipped with red. The flower has a perfume resembling that of the magnolia, and it blooms in the latter part of the summer months.
Frank wanted to send home some of the plants, and was told that he could do so with ease, but the bulbs would not live unless they were procured in May or June, when the stalks had been sufficiently developed to produce the flower. It is said that the early Spanish explorers of the Isthmus bowed before this flower and worshipped it, and the reverence that was then developed has never been lost. Down to quite recently it was very difficult to procure specimens of the Espiritu Santo flower, owing to this reverential feeling, and it is only since the colonization of the Isthmus by Americans that the stranger has been able to obtain all he wants. The flower is now cultivated in hot-houses, and has been transported to other tropical countries, where it is successfully grown.