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BOTANY. 



OUTLINE OF THE FLORA OF TRINIDAD. 



BY HERMAN CRUGER. 



TRINIDAD exhibits if not on a grand scale, at least within 

 striking and well defined limits the distinctive characteristics of 

 an intertropical American country. The variety of its soil and 

 formations, the abundant supply of water with which it is blessed, 

 give to the vegetable covering of this island the glowing colours, 

 the richness and grandeur of forms which astonish and charm the 

 admirer and lover of nature, and invite the thoughtful and scientfic 

 mind to study and meditation. No wonder that the grateful 

 Indian called this spot a paradise, swinging away his eventless 

 life in the chinchorro, whilst below and around, the teeming soil 

 spontaneously afforded him not only the necessaries, but even the 

 luxuries of life. 



" Mollia securse peragebant otia gentes ; 

 Ipsa quoque iramunis, rastroque intacta, nee ullis 

 Saucia vomeribus, per se dabat omnia, tellus." 



OVID i. 12. 



But Ovid did not dream of South America ; nor could he have 

 foreseen its history, or he would, in his description of the other 

 ages of the world, have depicted in vivid colours the civilising 

 bloodhounds, and the taming whip of the slaveholder, as pro- 

 minent features in the drama of a far-distant era the AGE OF 

 CHRISTIANITY ! 



" The character of a population depends greatly, though not 

 solely, on the aspect of the vegetable world of a country," says Von 

 Humboldt, in his " Views of Nature." Were I possessed of the 

 pen or pencil of a Humboldt, I would essay to place in their mutual 

 relation the luxuriance and grandeur of our forest- woods, with the 

 careless, though amiable character of the Trinidadian ; but this is 



