18 BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 
twelve hours out of the twenty-four, there is not a particle of 
wood or a decayed leaf, but what is instantly covered with 
an extraneous growth, to such an extent, that it may be truly 
said there is more parasitical vegetation than original, the 
former consisting chiefly of Mosses and Ferns. On approach- 
ing Windsor Forest plantation, the mountains present an 
extraordinary aspect, in their immense fields of Rock, almost 
perpendicular, and of a blueish-slate colour. This pheno- 
menon, I believe, took place during the great storm of 1815, 
when whole mountains were carried away, which now present 
frightful ravines and precipices, many hundred feet deep. 
This romantic spot gives peculiar grandeur to the well- 
wooded and lofty mountains of the vicinity. Here I procured 
roots of a beautiful species of /Zpomea covered with a profu- 
sion of slaty-blue blossoms. We then ascended a steep hill, 
to Wobourn Lawn, wbere we were kindly accommodated 
with beds by A. Barclay, Esq., the owner of several fine 
coffee properties in St. David's Mountains, and an excellent 
cultivator of European fruits, grapes, figs, apples, &c. 
Thursday, 3rd August—Leaving early, we descended to 
the river, which is rocky like all the steep mountain rivers in 
Jamaica. Two species of Psidium form quite a forest along 
the bed of this stream, mingled with Bocconia frutescens and 
two kinds of Indigofera ; I also gathered a few more plants 
of the Blue Ipomea, noticed the day before on rocks. Several 
species of Peperomia and Piper form almost the entire vege- 
tation of the abandoned coffee plantations, which have be- 
come exhausted and where the land is too steep to be 
successfully manured. On a loose rock I observed a large 
and remarkable snake striped like a zebra, but on my at- 
tempting to capture the creature, it disappeared among the — 
rocks. Proceeding, wereached Agley Gap, therain rendered - 
travelling very unpleasant, for the steep roads soon become 
intolerably slippery. While busily engaged in putting up -— 
some specimens of a showy terrestrial Orchideous plant, I 
heard a noise and looking round descried a boy and horse, — 
hanging in a tree, many feet below the road! The boy appa- — 
