220 IN THE GUIANA FOREST. 



think it a good riddance to such a pest. Perhaps 

 the thousands of weaker plants would think so too 

 if they had the power of reasoning. At any rate, 

 when the rains fall and the flood again covers the 

 blackened surface, myriads of seeds are scattered 

 everywhere, to sprout and give it again that 

 beautiful meadow-like surface. But the monster 

 is scotched, not killed, and soon every tuft is 

 throwing out new shoots to come into competition 

 with the late arrivals. Then ensues a great 

 struggle, the end of which can easily be predicted. 

 The beautiful saws lacerate everything in their 

 way, smother their pretty rivals, and the monster 

 is soon again master of the field and monarch of 

 all he surveys. 



For some reason or other the great razor grass 

 does not succeed in every part of the savannah. 

 Either the soil is too poor or the water too shallow 

 to suit his greedy appetite, and, therefore, he is 

 magnanimous enough to let other plants occupy 

 such places. But even here the struggle for life 

 still goes on, and is perhaps all the more interesting 

 from the varied characters of the combatants. 

 Here the sedges are more delicate, mixed with 

 pretty grasses and variegated by flowering shrubs. 

 Palicouria crocea with its fiery bracts ; the pale 

 yellowjussiaeanervosa; Rhynchantheras with great 



