THE ORCHID WORLD. 



'39 



what before ourselves only three other white 

 men were favoured to see — the top of 

 Roraima. It was one o'clock and the ther- 

 mometer registered 48 degrees F. in the sun 

 at five degrees latitude north of the Equator. 



At this pomt I consider it most appropriate 

 to mention in connection with such an occur- 

 rence the name of Sir Everard im Thurn, 

 the late Governor of the Fiji Islands, who 

 towards the end of 1884 visited Roraima, 

 and after persevenngly mastering all natural 

 obstacles succeeded m reaching the summit 

 of Roraima, the first white man, in fact the 

 first living man, to reach that goal, as even the 

 local Indians never thought of such an 

 attempt, holding their Roraima 111 such holy 

 veneration. 



After having admired for a while in 

 amazing astonishment the nearest surround- 

 ings from our position, 8,600 feet above sea- 

 level, cur first occupation was to select a 

 sleeping-place for the night for us two, and 

 with the help of the Indians we soon found a 

 convenient, though rough shelter underneath a 

 bi<; overhana;ini<r rock near the ed^e of the 

 cliff. In all haste we started gathering a 

 quantity of the scarlet flowering IJtricularia, 

 which I mentioned once before, and which 

 grows here nearly everywhere in abundance 

 in the soft swami^y soil. Our Indians were 

 feeling the cold immcnsel}-, so that an liour 

 afterwards we had to send them back with 

 the plants collected and with the injunction 

 to come again next day and fetch us down. 

 After a hasty lunch we had a good stroll 

 round, myself taking photographic views, Sey- 

 ler collecting the various Orchids and many 

 other curious-looking plants, which all seemed 

 new to me, growing as they did at such an 

 isolated altitude. Besides the Utricularia 

 mentioned we found two other tiny white- 

 flowering Utricularias, a curious-looking Max- 

 illaria, a Pleuroth;dlis, an Epidendrum and 

 two or three Habenarias. We ascended one 

 of these grotesque-looking stone pillars near 

 the edge and gained from there the grandest 

 imaginable view over the deep valley below 

 into the far southern distance. We saw 

 streams running in different directions, contri- 

 buting to the three chief river systems of the 



Atlantic side of South America, the Orinoco, 

 the Essequibo, and the Amazon. 



But by far the most astonishing, the most 

 marvellous, sight one ever could behold was 

 this conglomeration of the countless fantastic- 

 looking stone formations which met our eyes 

 everywhere, and wliich resembled more a 

 disorderly gallery of gigantic stone monsters 

 than anything else. The first impression was 

 that of inability to understand these surround- 

 ings ; the ne.xt, that one was entering some 

 strang'e country of nightmares ; for all round 

 were rocks and pinnacles of rocks of the 

 strangest fantastic forms. 



( To be continued .) 



NOMENCLATURE. 



We extract the following from The Field 

 of February loth, igi2: "Sir Jeremiah 

 Colman sent a new hybrid named O. collieri, 

 quite a baby but full of promise Vanda teres, 

 var. alba, Catasetum randii, and a very good 

 form of Odontoglossum charlesworthii were 

 shown by Messrs. Charlesworth and Co., 

 Haywards Heath. We haA-e on more than 

 one occasion protested against the absurdly 

 long, discordant names given by fanciers to 

 orchids. Here, for example, is one which has 

 Ijeen officially branded on to> a most beautiful 

 cattleya shown by Sir George Holford. It 

 was certainly the most admired plant m the 

 show until its name was sought, and then the 

 majority cried shame. Imagine any ordinary 

 flower lover being told that the only name this 

 orchid had was Sophroheliocattleya Marathon 

 Vesuvius! Yet Cattleya Vesuvius would 

 serve all practical purjioses, and we have a 

 right to expect all liorticulturists to be 

 practical." 



If every horticulturist is correct in his 

 spelling, surely we may expect The Field to 

 be acquainted with the elementary rules for 

 Botanical Nomenclature adopted by the 

 Vienna Congress, ifpS. We must remind 

 them that specific names taken from the 

 names of persons are spelt with a capital letter. 



The Royal Horticultural Society is, and 



