234 /^ THE GUIANA FOREST 



in duration, but on the mourie we begin to find 

 a few annuals. We have already seen that develop- 

 ment depends a great deal on the number of 

 generations, and shown what a powerful influence 

 towards that end is the flood. Now we have to 

 deal with the drought, the influence of which 

 tends towards the same result. If great trees on 

 the creeks, with their burdens of creepers, epiphytes 

 and parasites, are destroyed by the deluge, the 

 three months of the long dry season play similar 

 havoc on the vegetation of the sand-reef. It is, 

 therefore, of the utmost importance that the 

 plants should flower and perfect their seeds as 

 quickly as possible, so that if the individual dies 

 there may be always plenty of his offspring ready 

 to come up when a more congenial season arrives. 

 This accounts for the many flowers, their attendant 

 insects and resulting seeds which we see here. 

 Having to attain this object, they hardly care to 

 waste the little plant food they can obtain on great 

 stems and dense masses of foliage, but rather 

 devote their energies to the production of flowers. 

 Few are so highly developed as the Vanilla and 

 other orchids, which make such elaborate prepara- 

 tions for this contingency by storing food, so they 

 have to make other arrangements, and these take the 

 form of a provision in case of death. The species, 



