462 TRINIDAD. 



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, Buchnera, &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. As 

 soon as the wet season sets in, they are seen covered with a thick 

 carpetting of nymphaeas, utricularias, pontederias, and azollas. 

 This vegetation is nearly identical with that of our swamps or 

 lagoons, for instance, those of Erin and Quemada ; they exhibit, 

 however, a few other plants which are not found at the above 

 places, viz., Salvinia, Limnolium, Oeratophyllum^ besides Lemna 

 and Pistia. The half salt, or brackish swamps nourish, prin- 

 cipally, large rushes, typhas, banisterias, and Echites Biflora, 

 Acrosticlmm Aivreum, and nearer to the sea, Orenea and Anthery- 

 lium. In small water-pools or rivulets, in the plains of the in- 

 terior districts, may be found Ammania and Jussieua, SpilantlieSj 

 several species of Nerpestes, Mayaca, and Conobea. 



On sandy beaches, we observe, before all, the beautiful Ipomea 

 Pes Caprce and another species with white flowers, a Pancratium 

 and a Remirea, also several grasses of the following genera : 

 Paspalum, Cenchrus, Stenotaphrum, Cyperoids, and others. 

 Further inward we meet with a dense shrubbery of Chrysolalanus, 

 Conocarpus, Paritium, and Bactris ; and beyond these, we may, 

 perhaps, observe fields of Grynerium Saccharoides, or the white 

 roseau. 



The vegetation of the pitch-lake has its peculiarities, although 

 no particular species grows there within my knowledge. In the 

 middle of this curious spot there is, of course, no vegetation 

 whatever, since the pitch is there in a state of ebullition ; farther 

 off this centre, and in the water of the many crevices which 



