182 TRANSACTIONS AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE [Skss, lv. 



trees. There are sure to be a plant or two of tobacco, and 

 some bushes of large brilliantly red peppers. Among the 

 weeds that choke the Cassava and trail about unchecked 

 will be found Passion flowers, either the bright scarlet kind, 

 or the somewhat lurid but pretty Passiflora fcetida, gourds 

 with strangely-shaped fruit, and other interesting plants. 

 On the edge of the clearing the tall, thin, spindled Trumpet 

 trees {Cccropia peltata) are characteristic with their horse- 

 chestnut-like leaves, and most likely you may observe a bright- 

 coloured Toucan or two perched on their branches, their 

 enormous beaks giving them a ludicrous appearance. All the 

 Indian forest clearings which I saw had essentially the same 

 features. 



The whole of the Pomeroon district of Demerara is with 

 respect to its vegetation almost completely untouched by 

 civilisation. The primeval forest stands, as it has stood for 

 ages, as yet unpenetrated in all its length and breadth by any 

 kind of road whatever, unless an Indian track, nearly or 

 altogether undiscernible, can be called a road. A very few 

 food plants have been introduced, but nothing more. The 

 face of nature can be seen there as God made it, and it is only 

 in the thinly scattered clearings that you can trace the 

 influence of man. And even in the clearings Nature is only 

 half conquered, so that as soon as an Indian family moves 

 on to occupy another part of the forest, as they are constantly 

 doing, in a very few years she regains her hold of the soil, 

 and sweeps every mark of them away. But there was one 

 clearing on the river that was altogether different from the 

 others and infinitely more interesting and beautiful, and the 

 members of the Potanical Society who are interested in horti- 

 culture as well as in botany will not be displeased to have a 

 short account of it. It surrounded the residence of my friend 

 and host, Mr. E. F. im Thurn, now Government Agent for 

 the N.W. District of British Guiana, and well known as a 

 botanist and explorer. On the right l)ank of the river a few 

 miles above the mouth of the Arapiacru Creek, in a loneli- 

 ness unbroken sav(! by a passing Indian in his canoe, only 

 one other white man residing within a day's journey, stands 

 a picturesque troolie-thatched cottage, of wliich I shall be 

 able to sliow two lantern slides. Eound it lie about 25 acres 

 of cleared •jrouiid, and the wliole is situated somewhat above 



