forests of temperate climates, they are evergreen. Certain 

 trees may shed part or even all their leaves in the dry season, 

 but they are the exception rather than the rule, and do not 

 impair to any great extent the evergreen character of the 

 forest as a whole. The leaves of many of the trees are thick 

 and leathery, fitting them to withstand the shortage of water 

 in the dry season. In the lowlands, and in exposed situations 

 the air is, comparatively speaking, dry ; but in sheltered 

 valleys, and along river courses, where the atmosphere is 

 constantly saturated, the vegetation becomes still more 

 luxuriant, the more tender shade and damp-loving tropical 

 plants such as begonias, selaginellas and ferns, find congenial 

 conditions, and we also see, well developed, one class of plants 

 so characteristic of damp, tropical forests the epiphytes. 

 These are plants which find a lodgment on other trees, where 

 they cling to the bark for mechanical support only, and 

 depend for their existence on the rain which reaches them, 

 and the nourishment they are able to extract from accumula- 

 tions of humus and debris of various kinds, which collects 

 about them. A conspicuous epiphytic flora, made up of 

 mosses, lichens and algae, is also found in such conditions 

 upon living leaves. 



Although a little outside the scope of this guide-book, it 

 may be of interest to point out that a ride from Roseau to the 

 Waterfalls, for example, will give the visitor an excellent idea 

 of how dependent the epiphytes and the more delicate tropical 

 terrestrial plants are on the presence of an abundance of 

 moisture in the air. 



ITINERARY.* 



Entrance Gates. 



The Garden has three gates, situated approximately to 

 the North, East, and South-west. 



The northern gate is on the right hand side of the main 

 road from town up to the valley of the Roseau River. It is 

 the easiest gate to find from the town, and is in this Guide 

 called the Main Gate. 



" In following the itinerary as described, assistance will be 

 derived by referring to the plan published with this Guide. 



