OBSERVED DURING THE ROIIAIMA EXPEDITION. 201 



camp, afternoon after afternoon, each laden with a basket (a good load for a man) full of 

 these lovely plants, many of them then in full (lower. One day I myself, having 

 gone down to the Kookenaam to bathe, gathered, just round the small pool I chose for 

 that purpose, two most glorious clumps of this orchid, the better of the two having live 

 spikes of (lower, of which one bore nine, each of the others eight, blossoms — in all forty-one 

 of some of the largest and finest-coloured Catfleya-ilowers ever seen, on a single small 

 plant, the roots of which easily lay on my extended hand *. 



Before now dealing with the plants actually of lioraima, it will be convenient to say a \'c\v 

 ruore words as to the form of this south-eastern face of the mountain (woodcut, tig. 2). 



From the bed of the Kookenaam at Teroota (3751 feet) the mountain slopes, somewhat 

 gradually though of course not evenly, upward for a distance of about three miles, till a 

 height of 5000 feet is attained. This last-mentioned point is that to which a considerable 

 number of the plants belonging to the ordinary savannah vegetation of Guiana ascend t. 

 From this point the mountain rises, at first somewhat more abruptly and then again more 

 gradually, so as to form, as it were, a terrace about midway up the slope. The upper 

 level of this terrace, wdiich lies at a height of about 5400 feet, is almost everywhere 

 swampy, though here and there a few rocks crop out. This is the place so enthusiastically 

 described by Dr. Schomburgk, on account of the extraordinary richness of its vegetation, 

 as a " botanical Eldorado ; " and it was here too, just within the forest which edges this 

 swamp, that we built our house and made our headquarters. It is to this point that 

 the open savannah extends ; for above it all is more or less densely forested. Between 

 this swamp, lying along its terrace, is a ravine, and again, beyond this ravine, in which it 

 must be remembered that the forest begins, the mountain slopes up very abruptly to a 

 height of about 0500 feet, to the base, that is, of the actual cliff. In the accompanying 

 diagram (woodcut, fig. 2, p. 257) all up to the ravine is distinguished as the savannah-slope ; 

 all above, to the base of the cliff, as the forest-slope. It should also be noted that the forest- 

 slope is not uniformly clad with trees. The lower part is densely wooded, covered, as it 

 were, by dense jungle ; next comes a belt of bush, rather than of jungle; while still 

 higher, just under the cliff, the masses of rock which have fallen from above lie like a 

 moraine, on which are scattered sparse trees, the low, wide-spreading branches of which 

 interlock in a remarkable way J. The actual face of the cliff is, of course, bare ; but 

 wherever ledges run up for any distance these are often tree- or bush-clad ; and the one 

 ledge which runs right up to the top, the one by which we ascended, is bush-clad 

 to a point about two-thirds up, then bushlcss but plant-covered. 



In the ascent from Teroota up to about 5000 feet (nearly up, that is, to the commence- 

 ment of the El Dorado swamp) we met with many plants new to me scattered among the 



* full descriptions of thia Cattleya have been given in the 'Gardeners' Chronicle,' 1S85, vol. sxiii. pp. .'17 I. 375, 

 and vol. ssiv. p. 1U3. 



t The most conspicuous of tho few plants of the ordinary plain which ascend above this point are : — Polygala 

 hygrophila, H. B. K. ; P. tongicaulis, H. B. K. ; P. variabilis, H. B. K. ; §ida linifolia, Cav. ; Drosera communis, 

 A. St.-Hil. ; Pleroma Tibouchihum, Triana; Sipanea pratensis, Aubl. ; Pedis elongata, H. B. K. ; Gnaphalium 

 spicatum, Lam.; and Centropogon surinamensis, Presl. 



J This moraine-like part of the slope is curiously like the well-known " Wistman's Wood " on Dartmoor. 



