OBSERVED DURING THE RORA1MA EXPEDITION. 207 



we ascended to the top of Roraima. The lower part of the ledge, for perhaps two 

 thirds of its length, is wide, much broken, and very uneven. This part is somewhat 

 irregularly bush-covered. Then the continuity of the ledge is suddenly almost broken 

 by a deep ravine, a part of the rock having been worn away by a stream which falls on 

 to it from the eliff above. The ravine thus made is almost bare of vegetation. Above, 

 the ledge slopes somewhat steeply, but evenly, i'rom the point where it commences again 

 to the to}), and this part of it is covered by a dwarf vegetation never more than two 

 or three feet high. 



The shrubs on the part of the ledge below the ravine seem to be generally much the 

 same as on the forest slope ; but among these a few new ones appear. Among the latter 

 were the very beautiful Drimys granatensis, Mutis [No. 242], with its very beautiful 

 white flowers, like pendent wood-anemones, a new and beautiful Microlicia (Microlicia 

 brijanthohles, Oliver, n. sp. [No. 239]), and several more species of Psychotria [Nos. 191, 

 291]. There, too, was an abundance of the Lisianthus [No. 188] already mentioned, and 

 of TJtricularia Campbelliaiia. 



At the bottom of the ravine into which the stream falls the rocks are bare but for a 

 large number of a pretty white-flowered Myrtus (31. stenophylla, Oliv., n. sp. 

 [No. 321]), which, met with nowhere else, was growing abundantly in the spray of the 

 falling water. 



Beyond this ravine, on the upper part of the ledge, the true botanical paradise 

 began. The main vegetation is formed of Brocchmia cordylinoides, Baker (in the axils 

 of the leaves of which grows TJtricularia Hiimboldtii), Abolboda Sceptrum, Oliv., and 

 Stegolepis guianensis, Klotzsch [No. 338]. Among these were a great many plants 

 entirely new to me and of most striking beauty. Many of these were shrubby, but of 

 so diminutive a character as to be strictly alpine. Of these, by far the most beautiful 

 was a wonderful heath-like plant, with dark green-leaved stems, stout and sturdy, but 

 yet seeming almost overweighted by their great load of intensely vivid crimson star-like 

 flowers. This plant [No. 308] Professor Oliver has identified as a Ledolhamnus, possibly 

 a variety of L. guianensis, Meissner, but of much more slender form than is attributed 

 to that plant in Martius's Fl. Brasil. vii. 172. 



Another shrublet, in character recalling the " Alpine rose " (Rhododendron ferrugi- 

 neum), bore even more disproportionately large flowers, of an exquisite pink colour. It 

 was a Befaria, approaching B. resinosa, Mutis [No. 310]. Other tiny shrubs were a 

 white, feather-flowered Wewmarmia ( W. glabra, L. fil., var. [No. 214]), a myrtle (31. n. sp. 

 aff. myricoidi, H. B. K. [No. 189]), yet another species of Psychotria (P. imThurniana, 

 Oliver, n. sp. [No. 103]), a Baccharis (B. Vitis-Idcea, Oliver, n. sp. [No. ^41]), and a 

 Vaccinium (V . floribundum ? H. B. K. [No. 329]). On most of these tiny shrubs was 

 growing an appropriately tiny Misseltoe, Phoradendron Eoraimce, Oliver, n. sp. [No. 323], 

 a miniature of an English plant. Among all these, many other interesting plants 

 occurred. There grew, in far greater luxuriance and size than below, the pitcher- 

 plant, Heliamphora nutans, Benth. [No. 258]; also great masses of two species of Xyris, 

 X. Fontanesiana, Kunth [No. 257], and X. witsenioides, Oliv., n. sp. [No. 240], the latter 

 very striking and curious by reason of the Witsenia-\ike habit of their dark green-leaved 



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