Botanical ResearcJies in Guiana. 3 



I would, therefore, recommend any future collector, who may 

 visit these countries, to carry out with him a quantity of dry 

 moss ; of which a large supply may be pressed into a very 

 small compass ; so small, indeed, that the room it would occupy, 

 in the passage out, need not at all be taken into consideration. 



Amaryllii^e-.^ are here very rare, Mr. Colley having found 

 only about half a dozen species : these, however, are expected 

 to prove new. Of /rideae and Scitamineae no species were 

 found ; indeed, with the exception of the occupants of the trees, 

 the vast alluvial flats of the country are almost entirely destitute 

 of herbaceous plants. It is in the broken ground, the diversity 

 of soil, situation, and exposure, such as is only to be met with, 

 among mountains, that species of herbaceous genera are to be 

 sought; and Mr. Colley, unfortunately, though he penetrated 

 many hundred miles up the different rivers of the interior, never 

 encountered any considerable rising ground, except at the great 

 falls of Essequibo, up which, owing to an accident, he was 

 unable to pass. From the Corgooni, some great blue moun- 

 tains were observed in the distance; but there is no record of 

 their ever having been visited by any human being; the Indians 

 having an insurmountable horror of any attempt of the kind, 

 and the settlers being deterred from the undertaking by the 

 expense and labour which would attend the cutting of a way 

 through the tangled forests which extend to their base. This 

 difficulty of access is much to be deplored, as there can be no 

 doubt they would yield a rich botanical harvest. 



I must not omit to mention two remarkable plants, highly 

 prized by the wild Indians as the only remedies for the bites of 

 the Labarri and Counacouchi snakes ; from which, too, the plants 

 borrow their names. These plants are probably species of 

 -4Vum, and have stems about a foot high, which, in the larger 

 kind, are speckled exactly in the manner of the Counacouchi 

 snake ; while, in the smaller, the resemblance is no less striking 

 to the Labarri. We have here a striking instance of the bene- 

 volence of the Deity, who not only places the antidote in the 

 neighbourhood of the poison, but directs the attention of the 

 savage to the remedy by the likeness which it presents to the rep- 

 tile which inflicts the wound. How far the healing properties of 

 these plants may be exaggerated, I cannot tell; but a strong 

 corroboration of their efficacy may be found in the first volume 

 of Captain Alexander's Trayisatlantic Sketches. As the question 

 is, however, an important one, I rejoice to say there is a pros- 

 pect of its being settled, since both species have reached me in 

 safety, and are now shooting out. 



Orchidese being, as I have already mentioned, the principal 

 object of Mr. Colley's expedition, I will here bring forward a 

 few particulars which I have gathered respecting their habits, 



B 2 



