254 



MR. E. F. IM THURN ON THE PLANTS 



blown about on tbe surface of tbe eppelling until tbe next rains come, when it again 

 throws out anchor-like roots into some new furrow. One orchid of this wandering ten- 

 dency is a Catasetum ( O. cristatum ? [No. 



Fig. 1. 



148]) ; another is the new and very beautiful 

 Oncidium, named and described by Mr. 

 Ridley in the appended list as 0. orthostates 

 [No. 12]. Sometimes, too, in this same state 

 of the eppelling, especially where such ground 

 occurs on the brows of exposed hills, shrubs 

 of considerable size find anchorage in the 

 furrows and flourish. One such hill-top 

 which we passed was made very beautiful 

 in this way by a large and isolated patch 

 of the large rosy-flowered Bonnetia sessilis, 

 Benth. [No. 11]. In another similar place 

 we passed through a distinct patch of the 

 compact Stifftia condensata, Baker [No. 110]. 

 And more than one such place was distin- 

 guished by thickets of Gomphia gnianensis 



•S^-ll [No - 15] * " 



Lastly, as regards the eppellings where 

 the furrows of these places have been worked 

 down into the sandstone, and have been much 

 enlarged, the deep ravines and pits of all 

 sizes thus formed, though bare of vegetation 

 wherever the process of water-washing still 

 continues in violent action, where this 

 action has ceased owing to the stoppage of 

 the outlet, or has become much moderated, 

 are comparatively thickly clothed with vege- 

 tation. 



Another remarkable localized plant, though 

 not occurring on an eppelling, was the beau- 

 tiful Aplielandra pulcherrima ? [No. 14]. It 

 has already been said that, even on the otherwise open savannahs, more or less extensive 

 belts of forest often clothe the sides of the narrower parts of the valleys through which 

 the rivers run. One such place we came to, where, after crossing the Ireng river and the 

 low watershed which there separates that river from its tributary, the Karakanang, we 

 were descending toward the level of the last-named river. It was here that, in a some- 

 what extensive wood of which most of the trees were common species of Cassia, we found 

 the dense, shrubby underwood to consist almost entirely of this beautiful scarlet-flowered 

 Aplielandra. 



Throughout a small tract on either side of the Ireng river, where the ground was almost 



Rook-pillars on the summit of Roraima. 



