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play so important a part in making up the aspect of Jamaican 

 vegetation elsewhere in the island — the cocoanut palm, the 

 mango, the banana, the bamboo, etc. Indeed, in the absence 

 of these plants the landscape is comparatively tame and monot- 

 onous. 



The number of white men who have traversed this valley may 

 be counted on one's fingers, and the only path in it is the ill-de- 

 fined trail by which we will now make our way down to the river. 

 The descent, at first steep, soon becomes precipitous, and now 

 walking, now sliding, clutching blindly for support at the spiny 

 trunks of tree-ferns, we soon reach the river. Standing at the 

 edge of the stream we find ourselves amid surroundings of inde- 

 scribable beauty. The " river" is not large, but is studded with 

 innumerable boulders, by which it is broken into a continuous 

 series of waterfalls and pools. Above it a closed arch is formed 

 by the limbs of the trees, festooned with golden-brown moss or 

 the tangles of lianes, and in the quiet pools are reflected the giant 

 flowers of Datura Tatula. 



The forest trees are a marked contrast to the stunted forms 

 which cover the higher slopes of the Blue Mountains ; here Sym- 

 pJionia globiiljfcra (the hog plum) reaches a height of lOO feet, 

 and CalopJiylhim Calaba (the Santa Maria tree) spreads its canopy 

 of large glossy leaves to an equal height. Down at the coast the 

 temperature is higher than here, and further up the valley the 

 precipitation is greater, but at just this elevation there is the 

 maximum combined effect of these two most potent forces in 

 determining the wealth and luxuriance of vegetation. The trop- 

 ical aspect of the forest is heightened by the presence of occa- 

 sional individuals of the long -thatch palm [Geonov/a Swar/Bu), by 

 the banana-like Hclicoiiia BiJiai, as well as by species of Canna 

 and Philodefidron and the numerous shrubby and arborescent 

 Melastomaceae and Rubiaceae, which make up the undergrowth. 

 The epiphytic vegetation is exceedingly lich, having a ground- 

 work of various mosses and being made up of the less xerophi- 

 lous types of ferns, orchids, Piperaceae and Gesneraceae. The 

 dense foliage of the tree-crowns renders the Bromeliaceae much 

 less common than in the open canopy of the forest on the higher 



