136 



THE ORCHID WORLD. 



AN ORCHID COLLECTOR'S TRAVELS THROUGH BRITISH 



GUIANA TO BRAZIL. 



By ED. KROMER. 

 {ConlinueJ from page 1 1 0.) 



Our first c;ire now was to secure a house 

 for ourselves durmg our stay. At first we 

 intended to have a special house built for 

 us, but as by this time our own men were so 

 knocked up that they needed a rest badly, 

 and as we knew from our own European 

 experience what amount of W(>rr\- and trouble 

 there is alwa)-s connected with building, we 

 gave up that idea, and instead we fixed our 

 eyes upon a structure which stood nearest to 

 the church, and which appeared to us either 

 half finished only or half dilapidated. This 

 house, after a stiff bargaining with the land- 

 lord, who was none other than our reverend 

 friend, the clergyman, we secured for a 

 month ; a cutlass, pocket-knife, some fish- 

 hooks, two handkerchiefs^ two mirrors and a 

 mouth-organ, paid in advance, were the 

 house-rent. At last we had a house ! 



I may mention here our amazement at 

 witnessing what a most extraordinary eccle- 

 siastical mania possessed these people at this 

 place, called Kamaiwawong, just then, 

 inducing them to give up all work, and 

 instead to devote themselves during day- 

 time to such extravagant and unintelligible 

 church-service as some of the party must have 

 seen in their travels at the mission stations 

 on the Potaro or the upper Essequibo. 



Every day now we set out early in the 

 morning in the different directions searching 

 for the various si>ecies of Orchids and other 

 plants. Along the arid banks of the 

 Kukenaam river we found the Cattleya, 

 growing onl)- either on bare rocks or on 

 isolated standing, gnarled trees, fully ex- 

 posed to the sun, but by no means did we 

 meet it in abundance, a circumstance that 

 gave me considerable concern. In the lower 

 bed of thei river, growing amongst grasses 

 and in high water, completely covered over, 

 we came across large clumps of Cypripedium 

 Klotschianum, but its flower I found any- 

 thing but attractive. 



In the other direction towards the cliff of 

 Roraima, over undulated sloping ground, 

 extends that wonderful savannah, which 

 .Schomburgk described in glowing words as 

 a true botanical Eldorado. Here, on drier 

 ground, we gathered a quantity of Zygope- 

 talum Burkei which was also found on bare 

 rocks, together with Pogonia parviflora and 

 P. tenuis, Cyrtopodium cristatum, Habenaria 

 Moritzii, .Stelis guianensis, Catasetum dis- 

 color, and the charming Eriopsis biloba, fully 

 exposed to the sun ; strange to say that I 

 again came across this latter plant some 1,500 

 miles away from here in Northern Peru, 

 where, however, I found it growing in deep 

 shade in the virgin forests. On the edge of 

 the savannah, between enormous blocks of 

 rocks and m their crevices, we met Oncidium 

 nigratum with 'ts quaint little white and 

 black striped flowers on huge branched stems. 

 .Some 50 plants were all we could get. 



Still higher up the slope we noticed 

 innumeraf)le blossoms of the lovely l^tricu- 

 laria Ilumboldtii w ith its dark l')lue flowers on 

 tall spikes, which grows here chiefly in the 

 a.xils of the leaves of a Bromelia, Brocchinia 

 cordylinoides, so in order to get the Utricu- 

 laria safely away, we also took the Bromelia 

 with it. Close to this I Ttricuhiria, but con- 

 fined again separately to its own district, we 

 found a field of Cypripedium Lindleyanum 

 with its yellow-brown blossoms on tall 

 branched stems ; this plant gave us consider- 

 able trouble with its long fleshy roots deep in 

 the muddy swamp, the more we pulled to get 

 it out the more we sunk with our feet in the 

 soft mud. Below the forest slope, but still on 

 swampy ground, were amongst the short 

 grasses large batches of the .South American 

 pitcher plant, Heliamphora nutans, with its 

 delicate, star-shaped white flowers on reddish 

 stems, a most welcome addition to our collec- 

 tion. Reaching the edge of the savannah at 

 its highest point towards the cliff of Roraima 



