THE FLORA OF GUIANA AND TRINIDAD 21 



lily ponds, where one can see growing with wonderful luxuriance the 

 Victoria regia and other tropical water lilies. A pond full of lotus 

 (Nelumbo) with thousands of white, pink and crimson flowers, was a 

 truly magnificent sight. 



Unfortunately, practically none of the original forest has been left 

 in the immediate vicinity of the city, and one must go a long way 

 before one can see the untouched native vegetation. 



A day's sail from Demerara brings the traveler to Paramaribo, the 

 capital of Surinam (Dutch Guiana). Paramaribo is a picturesque 

 town, the high-gabled houses with their quaint stoops and doorways 

 looking curiously alien under the shade of great mahogany trees and 

 royal palms. Some of the houses, the former residences of wealthy 

 Dutch merchants, are fine examples of their kind, and recall the 

 flourishing days of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries when the 

 trade of Surinam was much more important than it is to-day. 



The streets are lined with rows of palms and other tropical trees, 

 among which the finest are the gigantic old mahogany trees. 



The botanical gardens lie on the edge of the town, and are devoted 

 principally to the cultivation of various economic plants — cocoa, iubber 

 of various kinds, oranges, mangoes, bananas, coffee — and other less 

 known tropical products. 



To the botanist, undoubtedly the most interesting feature of the 

 garden is a tract of untouched forest immediately adjoining it. This 

 is an excellent sample of the predominant forest of the region. The 

 greater part of this forest is more or less submerged for much of the 

 time, but at intervals in this swamp are low ridges of more sandy soil, 

 and in these drier areas grow the largest trees, two of which, the silk- 

 cotton (Ceiba pentandra) and the sand-box (Hura crepitans) are 

 veritable giants. The trunks and branches of these great trees were 

 covered with numerous epiphytes, among which the Bromeliaceae take 

 first place. Several species of Tillandsia, including the familiar T. 

 usneoides, the " Spanish moss " of our own Gulf States, were con- 

 spicuous. Clinging to the giant trunks, or festooned from tree to tree, 

 were many lianas, some of great size. Convolvulaceas, Bignoniacese, 

 and especially the giant scandent Aroids — Philodendron, Monstera, 

 Syngonium, and others — were noticeable among the tangle of creepers. 



An undergrowth of dwarf palms and many showy Scitamineae, 

 especially species of Canna and Heliconia, gave the finishing touch to 

 this truly tropical picture. 



Almost no ferns were to be seen, and bryophytes — especially liver- 

 worts — were few and inconspicuous. Of the latter, only a few small 

 leafy Jungermanniacea?, growing on the tree trunks, were noted. In 

 the town, and about the garden, a few epiphytic ferns were common. 



