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



afterwards found that they extended almost, if not quite, up to the top of the mountain. 

 One, Lisiantlms, L. macrantho aff. [No. 188], was a large succulent-leaved herb, 

 almost shrub-like, with very large rich purple-crimson flowers centred with white, which 

 would probably be a most valuable and gorgeous addition to our cultivated stove-plants. 

 The other was the most delicately beautiful, the most fairy-like, and at the same time, 

 for its size, the most showy plant I ever saw. It was a new TJtricidaria, which Professor 

 Oliver, at my request, has kindly named also after William Hunter Campbell ; U. Camp- 

 bellicma, Oliv., n. sp. [No. 187], grew among the very dwarfest mosses clinging to the 

 tree-trunks and boughs. The plant, that is the root and leaves, is so tiny that it was 

 almost impossible to detect it when not in flower. The erect stem, an inch or more high, 

 is hair-like ; and on this is borne one (sometimes two) large and brilliant red flower, 

 somewhat of the colour and size of the flowers of Sophronitls grandiflora. 



One more feature of the bush-belt claims notice ; the tree-ferns, occurring, indeed, 

 in the lower jungle-belt, but there crushed out of all form and lost in the too densely 

 packed struggle of plants, are here, in the greater and freer space, able to develop then' 

 true form and beauty, and so rise with stout erect stems to bear far overhead their 

 regularly shaped majestic crowns of thickly growing fronds. 



Next, of the rock and tree-belt all that need be said is that the same species as in the 

 lower belt seem to occur, but that these are here, for some rather obscure reason, repre- 

 sented by larger and more developed individuals ; that the Ferns, both the Tree-ferns and 

 the more dwarf species, and one of the Palms, Geonoma [No. 382], become yet more 

 abundant ; and that the mossy universal covering which I have already dwelt on as 

 occurring below, here becomes so immensely dense and all-pervading (the Mosses are so 

 deep on rock and ground, and hang in such dense, long masses from all trees and branches) 

 as to produce on the mind of one who penetrates into this remarkable spot, a wonderful 

 and extraordinary effect of perfect and entire stillness, as though, everything being 

 wrapped in so dense and so soft a covering, all sound and all possibility of sound were 

 stilled, deadened, and annihilated. 



Just where the rock and tree-belt meet the base of the cliff is a very narrow strip 

 of quite distinct vegetation, so distinct, indeed, that we might almost regard it as a 

 distinct belt, which we might call the bramble-belt. The ground there is covered by a 

 dense thicket of bramble-bushes (Rubus guianensis, Focke [No. 106]), in general appear- 

 ance altogether like English blackberry -bushes. Among this were large masses of the 

 South- American form, appearing very similar to the English form, of the common 

 Bracken, Pteris aquiUna, L. There, too, were many little bushes of Marcetia taxifolia, 

 very strongly suggestive of English heath, and there, also, was a flowering Laurustinus 

 (Viburnum glabratum., H. B. K. [No. 220]), curiously like the familiar plant of our gardens. 

 To me, after my long stay in the tropics, the whole scene suddenly seemed very home- 

 like and pleasant. But the next minute, as I turned in another direction, the illusion 

 was dispelled by the sight of great thickets of palms (Qeonoma Appuniana) and a few 

 singly standing and very stately tree-ferns. 



Up from the bramble-belt, passing obliquely up the cliff face, ran the ledge by which 



