| 释义 |
rain forest
Also with hyphen.
[tr. G. regenwald (A. F. W. Schimper Pflanzengeographie (1898) iii. iii. 281): see rain n.1 and forest n.]
A dense forest in an area of high rainfall with little seasonal variation, esp. a tropical forest characterized by a rich variety of plant species. Also attrib.
1903W. R. Fisher tr. Schimper's Plant-Geogr. i. iii. 260 The Rain-forest is evergreen, hygrophilous in character, at least thirty meters high, but usually much taller, rich in thick-stemmed lianes, and in woody as well as herbaceous epiphytes. 1922W. G. Kendrew Climates of Continents 327 The air is always moist, and the forests are very luxuriant. Dense rain-forest, with rubber, vanilla, and cacao, flourishes up to about 4,000 feet. 1926T. F. Chipp in Tansley & Chipp Aims & Methods in Study of Vegetation x. 207 The tropical rain forest is a type developed under abundant water supply, with high temperature of little variation, and but a short, if any, dry season. 1937Allee & Schmidt Hesse's Ecol. Animal Geogr. xxi. 428 This rain-forest reaches its largest continuous extent in South America. 1952P. W. Richards Tropical Rain Forest i. 1 The name ‘Rain forest’ is commonly given, not only to the evergreen forest of moist tropical lowlands..but also to the somewhat less luxuriant evergreen forest found at low and moderate altitudes on tropical mountains, and to the evergreen forests of oceanic subtropical climates. 1956Nature 25 Feb. 367/2 A detailed entomological survey..has been commenced in and around Ilobi, a typical rain-forest belt village fifty miles from Lagos. 1960N. Polunin Introd. Plant Geogr. xiv. 430 In lowland rain forest any luxuriant herbaceous ground-vegetation is found chiefly in clearings..where illumination is above the average. 1973Sci. Amer. Dec. 59/1 Sizable areas of rain forest still stand in Amazonia, Africa, Borneo and New Guinea, but..the rain forest is retreating. 1974Country Life 9 Oct. 894/3 Apes, monkeys, rhinoceroses, okapis, bongoes, tapirs and antelopes are just some of the other rain forest animals dependent on this habitat for their survival. 1978Vole Dec. 25/1 Tropical rain forests are one of the world's main remaining wild places. |