250 MR. E. F. 1M THURN ON THE PLANTS 



Probably no district of equally small size, after sucb brief and cursory exploration, bas 

 yielded greater, or as great, botanical results as bas Rorairna ; still more probable is it 

 tbat few small districts are so distinctly marked off from tbe country immediately sur- 

 rounding tbem by sucb great and remarkable peculiarities in tbeir vegetation. In brief, 

 tbe district of Boraima is, from a botanical point of view, chiefly interesting as an oasis 

 clotbed witb a vegetation distinct from tbat of tbe country which immediately surrounds 

 it, and at the same time, also in a very marked degree, peculiar either to this special 

 district or to this in common with a few other almost equally isolated, but widely sepa- 

 rated districts. 



I cannot devote these prefatory remarks (in which I have the privilege of introducing 

 the list and description of my collection, so kindly prepared by the authorities above 

 mentioned) to a better purpose than to make as emphatic a statement as I can of the 

 isolated character, botanically , of the Soraima district, of the probable botanical relation 

 to certain other possibly similar districts, and of the general appearance of the very 

 peculiar and distinct vegetation of these districts*. 



The whole area known under the name of Guiana may be likened to a wedge driven 

 into the north-eastern shoulder of South America. Geographically, it is thus placed 

 between Brazil on the south and Venezuela on the north ; for our present purpose it 

 will, however, be better to describe its position somewhat differently. The artificially 

 formed political divisions of the continent for obvious reasons correspond very closely 

 with the tracts naturally differentiated each by its own river-system. As it is along 

 the river-systems that the migration of animals and plants chiefly occur, the customary 

 and convenient names of these divisions therefore really correspond somewhat closely 

 with the natural and important differences in flora and in fauna, which distinguish the 

 narrow river-basins. Thus, as Venezuela is essentially the tract drained by the great 

 river Orinoco, and as the northern part of Brazil is essentially the tract drained by the 

 great river Amazon, and as Guiana, intermediate between these two, consists essentially 

 of the parallel tracts drained by comparatively smaller rivers (of which the Essequibo, 

 the Demerara, the Berbice, the Corentyn, the Saramacca, and the Maroni may be 



Boddam Weiham, in 1878. None of these made botanical collections. David Bukke, an English orchid-collector, 

 was there in 1881, and brought home interesting living plants, among others, the South-American pitcher-plant 

 (Eelianvpliora nutans), which has, I believe, since been distributed by Messrs. Veitch & Sons. Hestry Whitelt, an 

 English collector of bird-skins, was there on several occasions between 1879 and 1884, and is, I believe, again there 

 ta the present moment, but he has collected no plants. Siedel, a German orchid-collector, was there in April 1884, 

 and again, with us, in December of the same year. He brought back only living plants, especially the magnificent 

 Catileya Lawrenceana, which have since been distributed by Mr. H. Sander. Of these Siedel, the only traveller with 

 an eye for plants who has been at Boraima except in the last months of the year, assures me that the abundance of 

 flower was much greater there iu April than in December. But in the latter month the natives' Cassava-fields are 

 in full bearing, and provision is therefore much more easily attainable. 



* I use the phrase " Boraima district " as including not only the mountain of that name, but the whole of the 

 small group of similar sandstone mountains of which Boraima is the best known, and at present the only explored 

 member. 



