Wild Flowers of Georgetown. 351 



as in the old country. Everywhere on the dam we 

 shall see the thin, twisted, purplish spikes of an allied plant, 

 the common vervain, called here ver-vine and even bur- 

 vine (Stachytarpha nepetxfolia), with a few small pale 

 mauve blossoms on each spike ; a rather prettier kind 

 with blue flowers, but the same unconscionable propor- 

 tion of spike to blossom, is the Jamaica vervain (S.jamai- 

 cense) less common here, but a weed in several places ; for 

 instance, by a most unlovely trench in New North Road, 

 half-way between Camp Street and Waterloo Street. 



On this dam we shall also find many plants already 

 described, such as the rattle-wort, the yellow seaside 

 peas, the sesban or swamp pea, the bitter tally, the bush 

 flea-bane, the little heart-pea, and many others : besides 

 several undescribed kinds, of which we will only men- 

 tion the calabash tree, the wild guava, and a large swamp 

 bush (Anona palnstris), with dull yellowish and reddish 

 flowers, succeeded by greenish fruits as big as an apple, 

 known as the alligator-apple tree, monkey-apple tree, 

 and corkwood. 



On the road to the Kitty we shall see the sweet-sage 

 and black-sage, the wild ipecacuanha, and the blue flowers 

 of the minnic-root : but the commonest weed is the 

 bush-mallow known as the jumbi ochro (Malachra 

 capitata), something like a weedy hollyhock, with yellow 

 flowers surrounded by curiously folded leafy bradts 

 covered with viscid hairs, and straggling stems, growing 

 six or seven feet long in uncleared spots. A white kind 

 will be seen growing with it, with a more hispid growth 

 and slightly stinging hairs, the white stinging mallow 

 (M. radiata) ; they are not very attractive plants at any 

 time, but are seen to most advantage in the morning, as 



