342 TlMEHKI. 



uncommon plant, the bastard jessamine, evening oes- 

 trum, or blue poison-berry (Cestrum vespertinam), with 

 long woody stems and tubular greenish-white flowers, 

 about an inch long, sticking out in a spiky way along the 

 branches : and here or on the Lamaha dam we shall some- 

 times find the curious bladdery fruit, green with purple 

 veinings, of the pop-vine, cow-pops, or winter cherry 

 (Physalis angulata), whose small white flowers with 

 yellow stamens declare its affinity with the night-shades. 

 It is held here in great repute as a remedy for dropsy. 



In this land of trenches and water-paths the marsh 

 and aquatic weeds supply us with several of our finest 

 wild flowers. The magnificent Victoria regia need only 

 be mentioned here to express a regret that in recent 

 years some leading botanists have robbed it of its dedi- 

 cation to the young queen, in the first year of whose 

 reign its discovery by Schomburgk up the Berbice river 

 excited such enthusiastic interest, and have prosaically 

 classed it as Euryale amazonica with some obscure East 

 Indian plant. The large and small white water-lilies 

 need only be referred to their scientific names, Nymphsea 

 ampla and blanda ; and a marsh lily with white bang- 

 ing ribbon-like petals (Crinum Commelyni)^ common 

 on tidal banks near town, could not be mistaken for any 

 thing but a lily, in spite of the rather spidery look of 

 the flowers. But we must specially notice the pontede- 

 rias, among the handsomest of our trench-plants, the 

 most conspicuous and commonest of which has large 

 spikes of pale mauve or lilac flowers, the upper petal of 

 each marked with a yellow spot bordered with a violet 

 tinge, and inflated stems that enable the whole plant to . 

 float freely; this is the greater pontederia (Eiclwrnia 



