[ 29 1 
XV. The Botany of the Roraima бт of 1884: being Notes on the Plants 
observed, by EvERARD Е. ім Tuukn; with a list of Ше Species collected, and 
Determinations of those that are new, by Prof. Ошукв, F.R.S., F.L.S., and 
others. (Communicated by Sir J. D. Ноокев, K.C.S.L., F.R.S., F.L.S., «е.) 
(Plates XXXVII.-LVI.) 
[Read 15th April, 1886.] 
I. Notes on the Plants observed during the Roraima Expedition of 1884. 
By EVERARD F. тм THURN. 
AS was expected, the plants collected on the way to Roraima, and especially about that 
mountain itself, during the recent expedition and first ascent to its summit, have proved 
. of great interest, now that they have been examined and catalogued at Kew. Several 
specialists have most kindly lent their aid in examining and determining these plants. 
While Professor Oliver undertook the bulk of the collection, Mr. J. G. Baker, besides 
determining a few of the Petaloid Monocotyledons, has, with Mr. G. 8. Jenman of 
British Guiana, worked out the Ferns, Mr. H. N. Ridley, of the British Museum, the 
Orchids and Сурегасеге, and Mons. Е. Marchal the АтаПасеге, Dr. Engler has described 
a new Moronobea, Mr. Е. Brown a new Aroid, and Mr. Mitten has named the Muscales ; 
lastly, Dr. Maxwell Masters has supplied a note on two Passiflore, perhaps new, but 
imperfectly represented. Іп all, fifty-three new species and three new genera have been 
described by these various workers. 
The number of species collected would probably have been greater but for the extreme 
difficulty of drying plants in so excessively damp a climate as that of Roraima, and also 
for the fact that the other very serious labours inseparable from the direction of such an 
expedition greatly curtailed the time I was able to devote to the preparation of botanical 
specimens. As regards the number of new generic and specific forms collected, great 
as it is, it would undoubtedly have been much greater but for the fact (unfortunate 
in this respect) that my collection was made at exactly the same period of the year 
{November and December] at which such collecting as had been done before about 
Roraima had been accomplished by Sir Robert and Dr. Schomburgk and by Karl 
Appun*. 
# The list of visitors to Кога! па, other than natives, is as follows:—Sir Ковевт бсномвтвек, then at the head of 
a boundary commission, was there in 1838, and again, with his brother, Dr. Ricnarp 8сномвоввк, the present 
director of the Adelaide Botanical Gardens,in 1842. Both made considerable botanical collections, which were distri- 
buted, I believe, mainly between the Herbaria at Kew, the British Museum, and at Berlin. Kart Appun was at 
Roraima in 1864 ; his collections are chiefly at Kew. С. B. Brown, then the geological surveyor of British Guiana, 
was there in 1869; two Englishmen, Ғілхт and Ерріхотох, were there in 1877; and two others, М:Токк and 
SECOND SERIES.—BOTANY, VOL. II. 29 
