On tHE PotARO. 347 



smutty fingers, and a singular looking grass, Pariana sp., 

 attra6l attention. 



High up the tree trunks the Zebra, wild pine, Billber^ 

 gia Zebrina, puts forth its hard stiff leaves, variegated at 

 intervals with wavy bands of purple, having a curious 

 effe6l when seen from below. Strange broad-leaved 

 epiphytal aroids and polypodiums deck the larger branch- 

 es, and growing amongst them here and there the singu- 

 lar ca6lus, Rhipsalis pachytera, dangles its flat, curiously 

 scalloped phyllodes, which often become reddened in 

 places from the effe6l of strong light. 



In swampy hollows where the soil is always reeking with 

 moisture, the long sword-shaped leaves of Spathanthus 

 unilateralis bend in graceful curves across the narrow 

 track, and the bifid^leaved Carludovica Plumieri as it 

 clings fondly to the trunk of some hoary giant, gives the 

 traveller the idea that he gazes on a wonderful climbing 

 member of the palm tribe, but which really belongs to 

 a different order, viz : the Cyclanthacese. 



The vegetation that springs up on the heaps of " back 

 sand" in creeks that have been worked for gold, is of a 

 very interesting chara6ler, being usually quite different 

 from that of the surrounding forest. Here one sees 

 many familiar coast plants, the common though pretty 

 Silver Fern, Gymnogramma calomelanos, the Watchman 

 ^\3i\MyAchyranthesaspera, se\ er sl\ species oiDes?^ odium, 

 and Bidens bipinnatus. One can easily imagine their 

 seeds sticking to the flannel of a labourer or the pyjamas 

 of some gold digging manager, who thus unwittingly 

 transported them from their homes so far away. Several 

 species of Jussisea, Lycopodium cernuum and a pretty 

 little Sipanea which is seen nowhere else in the forest, 



