FOIiMS OF VEGETATION. 407 



The sides of ditches are, generally, clothed with the fol- 

 lowing : — Bartramia, jungermanniacese, hemionitis, asplenium 

 and acnemia, lycopodium and selaginella ; various grasses 

 and cyperoids; dorstenia, leria, cephaelis, hedysarum, and 

 mimosa. 



Cultivated grounds have also their peculiar inhabitants. 

 Polypodium, aspidium, lindsaea and adiantum, large setarias, 

 commelynacese, pupalia, centropogon, hedysarum and aroidese 

 delight in cacao plantations ; paspalum and panicum, cyperus and 

 mariscus, conyza and ageratum, eryngium, indigofera, hedysarum 

 and desmodium, herpestes and drymaria, and, but too frequently, 

 the alectra, or cane-killer, in sugar plantations : the alectra, how- 

 ever, is not limited to cane-fields. In provision grounds and 

 recently burnt land, the following genera occur : — Poa, panicum, 

 cyperus, erigeron, porophyllum, emilia, spilanthus, neurolama, 

 erechtites, solanum, mitreola, priva, oxalis, wedelia, cenchrus, 

 Scoparia dulcis, Eryngium fcetidum, microtea, and croton. 



In abandoned lands will grow, at first, the foregoing weeds, 

 and soon after, the following shrubs : — Lantana, varronia, 

 psidium, ochroma, cecropia, and abroma, and, among palms, the 

 groo-groo, acrocomia, and astrocaryum. 



The vegetation of our pasture-lands is composed, in addition 

 to grasses and cyperoids, of hypoxis, cipura, araceae, elephanthopus, 

 spermacoce, spigelia, echites, Asclepias curassavica, marsypianthes, 

 solanum, achetaria, sauvagesia, osbeckia, hedysarum, and mimosa. 



It now remains for me to enter upon the enumeration of all 

 the genera I have had an opportunity of observing in the island 

 — a list that will interest the general reader much less than the 

 scientific man, or the student seeking information. Before, how- 

 ever, commencing this task, I will give a general sketch of what 

 Humboldt calls " Forms of Vegetation/' and how far each of 

 these is represented in Trinidad. 



Palms. — These are largely represented here, and among them 

 we have the small geonoma, from three to four feet in height, as 

 well as the stately Oreodoxa, or Areca oleracea, with its lofty 

 crest towering above our forest giants, and the climbing desmon- 

 cus winding upwards and downwards among its neighbours, 

 sometimes to an enormous length. The pinnated-leaved genera 

 outnumber, by far, those with fan-shaped leaves, of which there 

 are only three species, to my knowledge. Our palms are seen to 



