542 
THE GARDENERS’ 
CHRONICLE. 
ГАъви, 28, 1887. 
fallen trees which lie across the river are 
assag 
a (— stemless Palm, a Geonoma — G. 
acaulisof Martius fl 
a short simple spike, 3—1 inches long, at the end 
Black Currants, and the leaves at first a beautiful 
pink. There was also a tall species of the same 
genus, reaching 15 feet high, with the leaves 
split into narrow leaflets, near G. paniculigera of 
Martius. 
On the banks of the river, in bloom, but not 
very frequent, was Schomburgh's Rose of th 
iro opice—Brownelk latifolia of Jacquin, with its 
great clusters of brilliant scarlet flowers. Lilies 
um grew plentifully 
T 
in the soft muddy banks. T irst is 
mmon in the forest over most of the 
region traversed, and, indeed, er all the 
alluvial land in the pese of the whole colony. 
The Р аге produced i in an umbel, on straight, 
dive , and have long, pendent, 
iali twisted, ligulate petals, each flower of 
the cluster ndin ng separate, and showing to the 
Manicaria saccifera, which on the Pomeroon is 
so abundant and luxuriant, reaching often 
50 feet high, so as to be quite a characteristic 
feature of the river. 
Half-way up we camped, and spent the night 
in the forest, our hammocks slung to trees 
whose heads interlaced high above, and under 
the improvised shelter of a few Palm leaves felt 
secure nst the contingency of rain. 
gathered logs, and made a roaring fire after 
dinner, which lighted our camp like day, but 
made 
the darkness around even more intense. 
No sense of insecu felt, 
however, within the radius p ihe light of 
our fire illumined, nor, though wild animals 
ded, was e much beyond it to excite our 
hension, leep was unbroken till the 
first grey rays of dawn, with the chill, uninviting 
aspect it gives the forest surroundings, broke 
through the dew-dropping roof of the trees, and 
we turned out to prepare the cup of coffee with 
which at dawn one begins the day in these 
latitudes. 
After a tedious day, a great part of which was 
spent in hauling the boat over the prostrate 
trees that lay across the river, we reached the 
point where we had to leave the water. The 
journey now lay overland through the heart of 
deep primeval forest. About an hour from the 
landing place, after traversing a rough and 
difficult track over deep beds of dry ‘evel or 
large water channels, a gu Indian camp was 
reac Here I dried my pressing paper, and 
we spent the night. eal this settlement we 
this profusion and variety was seen to be produced 
almost entirely by a single plant, a large climb- 
Fern, Acrostichum caudatum, which 
its growth on the ground but which only reaches 
its full development after it las ascended the 
the trees for several feet; and the 
grent variation of form which so impr 
the observer is s due 
after mile of this region this species has taken 
paramount possession, and it constitutes, indeed, 
the general undergrowth of the forest. 
A MINIATURE PALM. 
Continuing our way, all heavily laden with 
variousimpedimenta required for a week's journey, 
I detected beside the path a tiny and most charm- 
ing little Palm, in full fruit and flower, with a 
stem no thicker than a quill, and leaves no bigger 
than a.child's hand. In no country is the wide 
range in size or variety in form of the Palms 
more completely represented than in Guiana 
was delighted with this new acquisition to the 
flora and to my knowledge, and felt that its dis- 
covery was a sufficient forded for the trials of 
he journey. It is nearly allied to Geonomat pyc- 
nostachya of Martius, and it is so small that three 
ч 
existed before it 
by the fire. 
At the next settlement there were several 
families of opie but no vacant house on our 
arrival. ever, the usual hospitality of the 
Indians was oer shown Mi, a family 
turned out of their house, swept it, a 
tidy, and gave it to us, while they othe some 
of their relations or rieiphbou 
An Indian house, it may he жаа in passing, 
is, throughout the forest region of Guiana, a 
mere open shanty of posts with a Palm leaf roof, 
constructed without a nail in any part. From 
the framework the universal hammock, which 
serves the use of bed, lounge, and seat, is per- 
shaped blocks, 
felled having been obliterated 
Fic. 102.—woop ANEMONES: 
or four full-grown plants might be vw de ee 
on one's open hand. Our track n assed 
through two or three freshly felled Indian 
Cassava fields, which, according to the custom 
everywhere followed, had just been burned to 
clear off the bushwood. The trunks of the = 
charred and still "gus gos lay stretched ac 
the path in black and вост confusion, 
forming a formidable Dirrie to our p 
unbroken for several hundred yards. The jdm 
was intense and almost unbearable, as one clam- 
bered painfully step by step over the blackened 
stems; and the big collecting cases, carried one 
over each shoulder, every time one stooped o 
jumped from a log swung round together fion. 
behind with a most disagreeable and aggravating 
clatter. One meets with nothing so tiresome on 
à journey nor so trying to the temper as one of 
these freshly felled Cassava fields, in which one 
often wanders fruit] essly, the foot track that 
WIND-FLOWERS. (SEE P. 543.) 
a log, hollowed out, as large | asa "o ашкы: for 
making t in, 
constitute the furniture, and the prese Чот 
preparing and cooking Саззауа and pepper-pot, 
all standing about on the loose sandy floor, com- 
plete the domestic equipment of these very veis 
but easily built and easily abandoned homeste 
The Indians of the savannah regions, in the more 
elevated, and therefore colder and remote interior 
of ers country, enclose their houses. his 
iourney the Indian settlements proved a very 
sic distance a 
my pressing paper. 
1 
suffered in quality. МУ, firs 
on reaching a settlement was ju lay in 
