FORMS OF VEGETATION. 15 



Humboldt calls " Forms of Vegetation," and how far each of these 

 is represented in Trinidad. 



Palms. These are largely represented here, and among 

 them we have the small geonoma, from three to four feet 

 in height, as well as the stately Oreodoxa, or Areca Oleracea, 

 with its lofty crest towering above our forest giants, and the 

 climbing desmoncus winding upwards and downwards among its 

 neighbours, sometimes to an enormous length. The pinnated- 

 leaved genera outnumber, by far, those with fan-shaped leaves, of 

 which there are only three species, to my knowledge. Our palms 

 are seen to the best advantage in the savannahs at Aripo and the 

 Cocal, where they form groups at shorter or longer intervals. 



Bananas. This form embraces the plantain and banana, or 

 Indian fig, as well as the balisiers, the ginger and arrow-root 

 plants. We have a rich supply of these, and no doubt, in con- 

 junction with the palms, they impart to our landscape some of its 

 choicest features. Every person of taste must have been struck 

 with the exquisite beauty of some of our glens and river hollows, 

 in the composition of w r hose scenery the balisiers contribute an 

 important item. 



Malvaceae. Humboldt finds the type of this form in those 

 gigantic trees known here under the common name of silk-cottons. 

 The latter we have in the island, as also a few others, viz., the 

 wild chesnut (Carolinea) and the cork-wood (0 chroma). The 

 first of these trees, the bombax, presents this striking peculiarity, 

 that, besides its enormous proportions, it affords a hospitable 

 home to a multitude of parasites from numerous families such as 

 ferns, wild pines, orchids, and cacti, besides a host of mosses and 

 liverworts. 



Mimose^L The elegance of this form, both as regards 

 branches and foliage, cannot fail to attract the attention of an 

 observer. Of these, the tamarind tree is the most common 

 example, but certainly not the most beautiful. This is to be 

 found in the ingas and the genera deriving from them. 



Heaths. We have nothing like this form. 



Cactus. Excepting on the Bocas islands, these have but few 

 representatives here, on account of the great fertility of the soil 

 and the abundant atmospheric moisture. 



Orchids. It is well known that we possess many individuals 

 of this strange family, though they are becoming more rare in the 



