260 МЕ. Е. Е. IM THURN ON THE PLANTS 
way by plants characteristic of that mountain, such as Marcetia tarifolia (Хо. 68], 
Cassia Roraime, Benth. [No. 71], Dimorphandra macrostachya, Benth. | No. 89], JMeiss- 
пета microlicioides, Naud. [No. 174], Calea ternifolia, Oliv. | Хо. 27]. То me the most 
interesting plant on this river was a very beautiful little slipper-orchid (Selentpedium 
Klotzschianum, Reichb. f. | Хо. 31]), which grew іп the moist gravel of the river-bed, where 
the plant must frequently be under water. This plant we also found in great abundance 
on an island in the Cotinga river, on another in the Roraima river, and on asmall creek, 
called Aroie, а tributary of the Cotinga. Naturally the Arapoo river, as are its fellows 
flowing from Roraima, is an artery allowing of the dissemination of the plants of that 
mountain. 
At last we reached the Kookenaam river, at the village of Teroota, at the base, that 
is, of Roraima. Even beyond the bed of the river, for some distance up the slope 
of the mountain, the tract of ordinary savannah vegetation still continues, its charac- 
teristic plants ever becoming more and more mingled with plants belonging to the 
Roraima flora, till the very distinctly marked zone of strictly Roraima vegetation is 
reached. 
The course of the Kookenaam river, where it flows through the tract of neutral 
vegetation—vegetation, that is, not yet deprived of ordinary savannah plants, and not 
yet composed exclusively of Roraima plants—is, as was the course of the Arapoo river 
already described, very well defined by the large number of Roraima plants clustering 
on its banks. Among these may be mentioned various shrubs, Пег Macoucoua, Pers. 
(Хо. 75), Dipteryz reticulata, Benth.? (Хо. 73], Myrcia Roraime, Oliv. [No. 74], and 
another species close to M. Kegeliana, Berg | No. 82]) which in places fringe the banks of 
this stream, and are also characteristic of the upper, proper flora of the mountains. 
Along the banks of this river, after its emergence from the mountain, grows in the peaty 
soil at the water’s edge a very beautiful and sweet-scented white orchid (Aganisia alba, 
Ridley | Хо. 360]), and on the more rocky parts of the bank a very remarkable red 
passion-flower [No. 84], with panicles of many pendent flowers, each panicle having the 
appearance—the facies, to use that ugly but convenient term again—of a spray of fuchsia- 
blossom *. It was here, too, in the deep cuttings made by the river and half filled up 
with huge blocks of stone which are now overgrown with gnarled trees and shrubs, that 
one of the most famous of all Roraima plants grows—Cattleya Lawrenceana, Reichb. f. 
[No. 80]. 
This Cattleya is doubtless the one collected by the Schomburgk brothers, and enumerated 
by Richard Schomburgk as C. pumila; for it appears to be the only representative of this 
genus oceurring on this side, at least, of Roraima, and this was the only side visited by 
the Schomburgks. It grows apparently not high up on the mountain, but on the gnarled 
tree-trunks, close to the water, in the clefts through which the Kookenaam and some of 
its small tributary streams flow, at a height of about 3700 to 4000 feet above the sea. At 
the time of our visit, Mr. Siedel, an orchid collector, having set the natives to work 
to collect this plant for him, I have seen ten or twelve of these people come into 
* This passion-flower is well figured in Schomburgk's drawings, of which mention has already been made. 
