264 MR. E. F. IM THURN ON THE PLANTS 



which forest, it must he rememhered, covers on the other faces of the Roraima slope what 

 is here swamp — are full of interesting trees. One with vast numbers of large magnolia- 

 like white flowers is Moronobcea intermedia, Engler [No. 337], the new species 

 already alluded to as very closely allied to a second new species, If. Jenmani, Engl., which 

 occurs in corresponding circumstances on the Kaietcur savannah. Another abundant 

 tree represents an entirely new genus, Crepinella gracilis, Marchal [No. 162] ; another is a 

 new species of Sciadophyllum (S. coriaceum, March. [No. 128]). Another common, 

 and strikingly beautiful, tree is a variety of Eyrsonima crass/folia, H. B. K. [No. 130], 

 with leaves the under surfaces of which are tinted with so deep and rich a violet as to 

 impart a very striking violet shade to the whole tree, even when it is seen from a distance. 

 Under the shade of these and the hosts of other trees ground-shrubs and tree-trunks alike 

 are swathed in thick green mosses. There, too, but half clinging to the tree-trunks, are 

 various species of Psammisia [Nos. 56 & 49], woody-stemmed creepers, the innumerable 

 drop-like crimson flowers of which, as they catch the tiny gleams of light striking down 

 between the thick leaves of the forest-roof, glow with intense colour. In these shady, 

 moss-covered, quiet places stand erect many tree-ferns [Nos. 92, 270, 87, 37] and 

 a very beautiful new aroid (Anthnrium roraimense, N. E. Brown [No. 261]), its huge 

 heart-shaped leaves and large arum-like flowers of pm*est white carried high on a slender 

 but stiff stem. There, too, are innumerable ferns of wonderful interest, and many, but 

 not showy, orchids — especially of the latter family, many of those tiniest and most 

 delicate species which, if seen under a powerful magnifying-glass, would rival the most 

 showy and graceful of their kindred of our hothouses. 



We must now pass to the forest-slope, which, as has been said, consists of three 

 fairly distinct belts or zones, which I have called respectively, beginning from the 

 lowest, the jungle-belt, the bush-belt, and the belt of rock and tree. 



The jungle is most densely interwoven with many tall shrubs or dwarf trees, which 

 are yet more closely knit together by vast quantities of a climbing, straggling bamboo 

 (Guadua [No. 359]), of a cyperaceous plant (Cryptangium stellatum, Bceckl. [No. 357], 

 with rough, knife-edged leaves and tall, weak stems, which support themselves on, and 

 at the same time densely clothe, the shrubs among which it grows*, and of a gigantic and 

 handsome climbing fern (Glcichenia pubescens, H. B. K. [No. 313]). Among the shrubs 

 also are two palms : one, in vast quantities, very stout and erect-stemmed, and large- 

 leaved, Geonoma Appmniana, Spruce [No. 382] ; the other, occurring only in a few scattered 

 examples, a Euterpe, probably E. edulis, Mart., but, if so, in a most remarkably 

 stunted and dwarfed form. It is worth noting here that, despite the reported specific 

 abundance, by Schomburgk and Appun, of palms about Roraima, these are literally the 

 only two plants of that Order which I saw on the mountain. Under the shrubs 

 forming this jungle the ground was everywhere swathed with mosses, closely inter- 

 mingled with innumerable ferns, especially filmy ferns ; and this mossy covering 

 reached up over the tree-stems and branches everywhere but where the sunlight 

 fell. Under the shade of these shrubs, in the darkness and damp, grew various 



* This is also a Kaietcur plant, 



