402 TRINIDAD. 





the same composition. The grasses are higher and coarser, and 

 the savanDahs themselves interspersed with two small trees — the 

 Chaparro (Curate Ha) and a BuncJiosia j here and there also a 

 shrub of Miconia, or Vismia, with byttnerias, ruellias, and 

 osbeckias. In the water-courses are to be found two plants, viz., 

 an Eriocaulou and Tonina, which are perhaps to be found also 

 at Aripo, together with the following : Xyris, Mayaca, Hydrolea, 

 and, bordering on the high wood, Bapatea. 



Somewhat resembling the above, but more destitute of 

 similar shrubs, are the savannahs of Icacos, and those of 

 Savanetta and Couva. The driest, however, as also the least 

 interesting of our "natural savannahs/' is that situated near 

 Arima. It is overgrown with chaparros, under whose scanty- 

 shade grow coarse scrophularacese, principally Beyrickia, with a 

 smaller quota of grasses and cyperoids ; and, in moist spots, an 

 abundance of Heliconia psittacorum. 



I would not, without much hesitation, class the savannahs on 

 the mountains — from St. Joseph to Arima — among natural 

 savannahs. They may possibly owe their origin to the 

 destruction of forests by fire, in parts where the layer of soil 

 was too thin to nourish a fresh generation of trees. They offer | 

 little interest to the botanist, and yet their exploration is 

 rather difficult, the high rank grass they produce — Pennisetum, \ 

 Setaria, Andropogon, &c. — being mixed up with cutting sclerias 

 and others. However, whenever these savannahs have been 

 cleared by burning, a more interesting vegetation succeeds ; and 

 I have found there, among other plants, several orchids, 

 Bucknera, &c. 



After thus endeavouring to present a picture of our forests 

 and savannahs, as far as their botanical character is concerned, 

 I will now proceed to give an account of the rivers and 

 swamps. 



Rivers with a rapid stream are of little interest to the botanist, 

 and we have already noticed what plants are met with on their 

 banks, when speaking of ravines and waterfalls. As to plants 

 vegetating altogether in water, there are hardly any beyond a 

 few algae adhering to the roots of trees : those of a larger size 

 would be carried away by freshets during the wet season. But 

 those watercourses which are rather mere estuaries, since their 

 waters become salt during the dry season, deserve peculiar notice. 



