* 
Flora of the Sandhills. 391 
comes along with whole troops of pleasure-seekers. These bring their 
food and drink along with them; enjoy themselves during the night and 
morning with sport and dancing, and return on the Sunday to town. 
It is a motley do-as-you-please sort of crowd composed of Europeans, 
coloured people, Xegroes, shopkeepers, ai'tisgns, officers and day- 
Jal»ourers, which however very generally ends up with the most serious 
fights if !N>groes aie pi-eseut, l»e< nuse without n row a Idack niau cannot 
live, or at least cannot enjoy himself. 
978. I was indeed not a little surprised when, dui ing the course of 
my first trip over these sandhills I once again found the lichens of the 
Roraima and Humirida Ranges: Cladoma ranf/ifera, coecinea^ 
cocomia and earnea had apparently overrun the flats, bare of forest, of 
this range of hills. 
979. The rank forest which covered the hills consisted for the most 
part of Lanrus, Ficus, Anona., Eperua, Panvoa and isolated trees of the 
beautiful Alexandra Impcratriris;* Schomb., which my l)rother discovered 
between the 5th and 6th degrees of latitude, on the tributaries of the 
Cuyuni, but chiefly on the banks of the Wenamu, and named in honour 
of the Empress of Russia. The tree is conspicuous not only for its 
beautiful conformation, but for its lovely flower-bunches. Although the 
flowering time was over, its mostly 18 to 20 in. long brown ])ods, with 
their velvety surfaces, lent it an equally beautiful finery. The l»uds 
burst direct from the bark of the branches, as with Th^ohroma nn<l 
Crcscentia. The trees that I found on the sandhills were generally from 
100 to 110 feet high. For the botanist, the interest in the tree is still 
further increased by the fact that it forms a link in the chain that 
l»inds together the P(t pllionaccac witli the C<trs(tl piinitr, the two !J,r;«n,t 
divisions of the Lef/iinniiome.j 
080. About three miles aback from the bank of the Demerara runs 
f\ sandy flat of varying breadth which is covered by a thin low brushwood 
wi<h isolated trees now and again in between. Tt runs modei-ately ]»arallel 
Willi the Sandhills and luas received the name of "savannah" liy the 
Colonists although it l»eai-s not the least resemblance; in fact, the 
vegetation of tliis sandy steppe is one completely different, though at 
the same time many of the genk^ra and species of the orchids Icjuinl in 
British Guiana are present. t The top surface of the whole tej'i-ain is cov- 
ered with a loose white sand so that at first sight the eutiie area 
ßeems to hnve just as barren .an appearance as the real tract of dunes 
*, The tedinical description of this new germs, etc., in Latin, is omitted. (Ed.) 
I. f'l'. 'Die IJirhacenia Alexandrinae iiiid Raibaceiiia I niperatricis " by Rob. H 
Schomhur^rk. etc Brunswick. Vieweg and Son. 
I. Of the genus Maxillaiaa T found particularly : M. Balemaimi. M. vhlorantha. M. pcirrecl a 
M.fumila. MTvnrinia. M. .s-t«Hov'j and M.Steelll: of tlie genus F.inihixfrum, H. -imnrai/d iiium 
Hot, TJef.", F. lonqicolle Tiindl., E miiiimiim Aubl., E. jiirium liot. iieg.. F cliloroleiu iim Hook., 
:in\\ F. corhiceurn Park : then Ple:ii-iifhaUi>: picta VAmW., P. iilinta Ki\i\\\\.. and llir beautiful 
VAU- liiirliiifihinia Candida Lindl., wliich I met with nowhere else. Here it is tu be seen in 
larwe (luantit V liangiiig to ilic twigs of the bushes: its often li ft. long white sweet-.scented 
flower-clusters constitute the greatest ornament of this peculiar flora. Resides these, there 
are considerable quantities of the genera Oncidium Ppi-i^le,-','! . R.idri ,nfzii, ßi/i-onm-ia. 
Fernaiidfzia. Ziiqitpelalum, Uuhnea and several beautiful gi'ound oivhids. | :dso cauie across 
the jovelv flowering Cumvmntlntu Srhomburt/kii Berith here 
