140 Notes Oil Jungle and Other Wild Life. 



Takint^" it all in all. perhaps the Demerara Botanic 

 Gardens are the most attractive. Nowhere else can the peculiar 

 tropical ves^'etation of South America be studied to better advan- 

 tage, all artistically disposed along miles of well-kept drives 

 and walks. Palms there are in great variety and abundance, 

 including the majestic royal, the somewhat similar cabbage 

 palm, the Eta, the fan or traveller's (so-called because of the 

 supply of water to be found at the base of its leaves) palm, and 

 many another curious form. 



The glorious Victoria Regia lily is a common weed in 

 British Guiana, was first discovered here and at one time flour- 

 ished in some of the drainage canals that crisscross the city of 

 Georgetown. When it was, for sanitary reasons, decided to 

 fill these trenches this huge water-lily was banishel to the 

 Gardens — its ponds and canals — where it may be seen by the 

 hundred, with its immense leaves, enormous buds and wonderful 

 flowers. Here, too, one sees other water lilies of great size 

 and beauty — the lotus and vast numbers of the red, white and 

 blue nymph ca. Adjoining the Gardens proper are 40 acres ct 

 fWjjcrimental nurseries where certain economic products — 

 sugar-cane in particular — likely to be of value to the colony are 

 grown. As might be expected in this land of orchids, the 

 crrhid house is often redolent of bloom, and is always well 

 worth a visit. 



The traveller will be charmed by the animal life of the 

 ( lai'dens, and especially by the home-coming flight of hundreds 

 of blue herons, white egrets, hawks and other birds, best seen 

 (from 5-30 to 6 p.m.) just before they settle for the night in the 

 liigh trees of tne " Island" — a small bird sanctuary entirely 

 surrounded by a canal or moat. This body of water is filled 

 with flowering lilies whose pads support numerous large, long- 

 toed, brilliant-coloured jacanas and other water-fowl that run 

 along the wide leaves, while flocks of Night and Day herons call 

 and squabble for a favourite resting place in the branches above. 

 All things considered, this sight alone is worth a trip to British 

 Guiana, and it is made possible by a sensible bird protection 

 law strictly enforced. 



