OBSERVED DURING THE RORAIMA EXPEDITION. 265 



high-drawn terrestrial orchids, pallid plants with inconspicuous and pah; flowers (Steno- 

 ptera viscosa, Reichb. f. [No. 131]). 



Undoubtedly the most striking feature of the vegetation of this jungle-belt was the 

 curious abundance and variety of the Ferns. Of these, two seem to require special 

 mention here. One is the Gymnogramme [No. 181] already mentioned as occurring 

 on the rocks in the swamp ; it was abundantly distributed from the swamp nearly to 

 the top of the mountain. It will be further mentioned in connection with a closely 

 allied species occurring on the top. The second fern to he distinguished represents a 

 very remarkable new genus, on which Mr. Baker has dwelt at some length in his report 

 on the plants of the expedition. The genus he has called Endoterosora [No. 181] ; the 

 species he has been good enough to gratify me by naming after my friend the late William 

 Hunter Campbell, LL.D., a man who, for very many reasons, but especially for his con- 

 stant endeavours to forward the scientific interests of the colony, deserved so well of the 

 people of Guiana. It is perhaps worthy of mention that this plant so closely resembles in 

 outward appearance a form of an entirely different genus (Polypodivm bifurcatum, L. 

 [Xo. 184 ex parte]), that I collected and dried it in mistake for that plant. Were it 

 possible to conceive that this resemblance could be of any benefit to the genus Etido- 

 terosora, it might be supposed that its very close resemblance to Polypodium bifurcatum 

 was an instance of ' mimicry.' 



Above the jungle-belt comes the bush-belt. Here the shrubs, much fewer in number 

 and so scattered over the ground as to leave wide intervening spaces, appeared to me 

 generally of much the same species as in the lower belt. Here, however, as is not 

 the case below, they are sufficiently distributed to be individually distinguishable. 

 Among them the most prominent are a great number of species of JPsychotria [Nos. 83, 

 115, 185, 232], and a very remarkable yellow-flowered Melasma, M. ? spathaceum, Oliver, 

 n. sp. [No. 210], of which Professor Oliver writes that the specimens supplied him are 

 too imperfect to afford means of final determination whether this should not be regarded 

 as the type of a new genus distinct from Melasma ; and, in great abundance, a Groton (C. 

 surinamensi, Muell. Arg., aff. [No. 235]). Here, too, as below, but as is not the case in 

 the jungle-belt, occur a large number of plants of Brocchinia cordylmoides, still in its 

 small Roraiina, not in its larger Kaieteur form, as well as great quantities of the huge 

 Stegolepis guianensis, Klotzsch. [No. 338], the iWs-like plants of which, being provided 

 with a great abundance of slimy matter, made walking most difficult, in parts where they 

 grew densely. The Brocchinia, too, grew in parts so densely that we had to walk, not on 

 the ground, but on the crowns of the plants, which, as we crushed them with our feet, 

 poured from the axils of their leaves the remarkably abundant water which they 

 retain ; and very cold water it was, over our already too cold feet. Nor must I omit to 

 mention, though I propose afterward to sum up my observations on the Broccli'niia and 

 on the various species of TJtricularia, that in this bush-belt a very few plants (I saw not 

 more than three or four) of TJtricularia Humboldtii, Schombk. [No. 43], of the dark 

 Roraiina form, were growing in the axils of the Brocchinia-le&ves, as at the Kaieteur. 



Two other very interesting plants appeared to us first in this bush-belt, though we 



SECOND SERIES. — BOTANY, VOL. II. 2 S 



