July 1891.] BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH. 179 



much, even if I had more knowledge of them than I have. 

 In colour they are for the most part of a uniform dull green, 

 and from the fact that they are clothed with leaves throughout 

 the whole year, and that therefore there is no season when 

 they are in fresh young leaf, or when they are decked in the 

 reds and yellows of an English autumn, they seldom show 

 those exquisite varieties of tint which in May and October 

 we are so familiar with in our woods at home. Add to 

 this that they are all crushed together in closest proximity, 

 so that except here and there on the outskirts of a clearing 

 one is never found sufficiently isolated to present any beauty 

 of form. One does occasionally see a tree completely 

 covered with flower, a "Long John," for example (Triplaris 

 surinamensis), laden with cream-coloured bunches, which, as 

 they mature, change gradually to a rusty tinge, and form a 

 very beautiful object in the landscape ; but such trees do not 

 occur often enough to light up the sombreness of the forest. 

 I was somewhat disappointed in the size of the trees. The 

 truth is, they are all of great size, at least in point of height, 

 and one has therefore no comparative standard to judge by. 

 Nor are there any objects of known height near to measure them 

 by. Besides, a single tree almost never stands out clear of 

 others so as to enable one to form a fair idea of it as a whole. 

 I saw, however, on that first morning a splendid exception in 

 the mission clearing at Cabacaboori on the Pomeroon, as we 

 paddled up the river into which we had issued from the 

 creek. This was a magnificent Ceiba or silk-cotton tree 

 (Uriodendron anfraduositm, DC), standing 180 feet high, 

 and visible from root to summit, its branches covered with a 

 Bignonia {B. unguis, L.), which in its flowering season trans- 

 figured it with yellow flowers. It is far and away the finest 

 tree I have ever seen. But such examples are rare. 



When one penetrates into the forest in that particular 

 part of the colony, the Mora tree {M. excelsa) is found to be 

 the prevailing one. It yields a fine timber, which is not, 

 however, exported from the Pomeroon at present by reason 

 of an obstructive bar at the mouth of the river.* It is a 



* The colony abounds in fine timber adapted for almost every purpose. 

 Large shipments of Greenheart have recently been made from the Essequibo 

 for use in the construction of the Manchester Ship Canal, and of the new 

 harbour works at St Lucia. It appears, also, that a wood has been discovered 

 lately in the Guiana forest better suited for the manufacture of lucifer match- 

 boxes than any hitherto known. 



