with Remarks on their Vegetation. 1 71 



tree, from several large thin plates which stand out from the 

 bottom of the trunk. They begin to jut out from the stem at 

 the height of ten or twelve feet from the bottom, and gradually 

 increase in breadth till they reach the ground, where they are 

 connected with the large roots of the tree. At the surface of 

 the ground these plates are often five feet broad, and through- 

 out not more than two inches thick. The large Cassia have 

 a striking appearance when in flower ; and as an almost equal 

 number of large trees of Lasiandra Fontanesiana and other 

 species belonging to the same natural order are in bloom at 

 the same time, the forests are then almost one mass of yellow 

 and purple from the abundance of these flowers. Rising amid 

 these the pink-coloured flowers of the Chorisia speciosa can 

 be easily distinguished. This is a large tree, with a stem, co- 

 vered with strong prickles, from five to six feet in circumfe- 

 rence, unbranched to the height of twenty or thirty feet. The 

 branches then form a nearly hemispherical top, which, when 

 covered with its thousands of beautiful large pink-coloured 

 blossoms, has a striking effect when contrasted with the masses 

 of green, yellow, and purple of the surrounding trees. Many of 

 these large trunks afford support to various species of climbing 

 and twining shrubs belonging to the natural orders Bignonia- 

 cece, Compositce, Apocynece, and Leguminosce. The stems of 

 these climbers frequently assume a very remarkable appear- 

 ance. Several of them are often twisted together and dangle 

 from the branches of the large trees like ropes, while others are 

 flat and compressed like belts : of the latter description I have 

 met with some six inches broad, and not more than a quarter 

 of an inch thick. Two of the finest of these climbers are the 

 beautiful large-flowered Solandra grandiflora, which diffusing 

 itself among the branches of the largest trees of the forest gives 

 them a magnificence not their own ; and a showy species of 

 Fuchsia, which is very common, attaching itself to all kinds of 

 trees, and often reaching to a height of forty and fifty feet. 



2nd. Shrubs. — The shrubs which are found in the virgin 

 forests principally consist of numerous species of Rubiacece, 

 Myrtacece, Melastomacece, and Palms ; Franciscea ramosissima, 

 (Pohl), and another species allied to Pohl's F. hydrangece- 



