' ITINEKARY. Ixi 



And these remarks hold good of the slopes below also : so that Burk- 

 hill's regret, already quoted, has real cause. 



In this connection it will be of interest to mention some of the 

 special features brought out by Burkhill in his Introduction {loc. cit.) 

 as to the nature of the Flora of Eoraima above 5000 feet. Referring 

 to the high proportion of endemic species (50-6 per cent.) among the 

 flowering plants, he writes : — 



" The proportion of endemic Spermophyta may seem large, but does 

 not exceed that on record for some of the mountains of Mexico. Of 

 far greater interest is the number of endemic genera. The law that 

 mountains by their isolation and extension, as well as by their latitude, 

 produce endemic genera, is illustrated by their number in the ranges of 

 Cis-Equatorial South America : thus there are eleven among the Sper- 

 mophyta of Roraima, and only two in the Coast Andes, which are 

 comparatively small and not isolated, but I am aware of no fewer than 

 thirty-six in the extensive Andes of Colombia, including with them 

 the Cordillera of Merida. 



" The endemic genera are enumerated on p. 7. They belong to as 

 many orders. One of theim—Eeliamphora — has no kindred in South 

 America, but belongs, like CyriUa, to a North American group; all 

 the rest have more or less close allies in genera of the South American 

 continent. Ledothamnus, however, deserves further remark, because it 

 is one of the very few Ericacese with cricoid leaves which exist in the 

 New World." 



He points out also the special relationship of the Eoraima flora with 

 that of the Andes, and not with that of the southern mountains of 

 Brazil, with which.it has been compared, and in which aay similarities 

 noted are much more due to similarities of climate than to any 

 evidently intimate relationship between them in times past. Thus he 

 names six genera as common to Roraima and the mountains of South 

 Brazil, but not reaching the Chilian Andes, being in fact not montane 

 in a restricted sense : also seven genera of the Andes which extend 

 from the north to Chili, also to Roraima and the mountains of South 

 Brazil ; while there are fourteen genera of the northern Andes, not 

 overpassing Boliva southwards, but reaching Roraima, and not South 

 Brazil — besides thirteen other Andean genera extending to the Coast. 

 Andes of Venezuela, reaching to the neighbouriiood of Ca.racas, but 

 not yet found on the Roraima Group. 



A luminous passage may also be quoted from the Report by 

 Stephani : — " The collection of Liverworts made by Messrs. McConnell 

 and Quelch is a small one, but is of particular i-nterest from a geogra- 

 phical point of view Many plants were found which hitherto had 

 been only observed in the Andes of South America ; their unexpected 

 appearance on the top of Mt. Roraima is quite startling : the curious 

 Frullania mirabilis, Jack et Steph., is of particular interest, as well as 

 the very rare and beautiful Pl&wrozia pa/radoxa, Jack, both of which up 

 to this time had not been elsewhere observed." The collection of 

 Liverworts contained 40 species. 



Clearly therefore one may sum up the matter by saying that recent 

 extensions of our knowledge of the Flora of the Roraima district — in 

 which Mr. McConnell's special expedition bore an important part — but 



