US 
The Rose of the Tropics. 
plunge. When the combined chains of bush-rope together with their 
shackled trees are too weak to bear (he weight of a Mora, the sinking 
monster often drags down with it. to destruction a whole series of its 
supports but just as frequently, if its roots are not quite separated from 
the soil, new trunks will soon rise from out of its grave and overtop the 
brushwood of the environs. 
510. This concatenation of the bush-ropes affords the trees real pro- 
tection : one can throw down the larger only after the fall of the smaller 
ones. T found this out. for myself during subsequent travels when, in 
order to fell one tree that was flowering I had first of all to cut awav 
five or six others which the coil of vine-rope (bush-rope of the Colonists) 
had linked together. 
517. The importance of the Mora for the British Navy to which my 
brother already drew attention after his first journey, has recently been 
completely confirmed. One finds this valuable tree in such quantity 
and huge size on the upper Barima that its banks would supply suffi- 
cient material for the whole of England’s Fleet. 
518. With the appearance of this giant the river-side growth had 
assumed quite a neAv character. I was surrounded with trees, flowers 
and fruits that I had nowhere as yet come across. Amongst those ap- 
pearing for the first time there especially gleamed the beautiful crimson 
blossoms of the Brownca raccmosn Jacq. which at a distance I mistook 
for the ripe fruits of Badris acanthocarpa. By 'the side of this refresh- 
ingly vivid wealth of nature all the illustrations that the artist has 
made of these flowers are dead and impressionless- — and how could even 
the most skilful brush attain the exactness that Nature has imprinted 
on this enamel-work of dazzling colours? The delicate structure of this 
elegant tree, the brilliancy of its vigorous foliage, the wealth of its large 
indescribably frail blossoms that glow in such blinding colours that the 
eye can hardly bear their sparkling fire — everything combined to cap- 
tivate my admiration. Although the Brownca belongs to quite a differ- 
ent family, and its inflorescence differs entirely from the rose, 1 can 
find no more suitable term for it than the “Rose of the Tropics.” And 
when the blossoms disappeared the large but delicate seed-pods present- 
ed a pretty picture which even beside the magnificent Gustavia fastuosa 
Willd. and innumerable dazzling-white wax-like flowers of the Glusia 
retained an overpowering charm. 
519. Nature, with a real covetousness of space, had fashioned the 
branches that were encroaching outwards far above the surface of the 
stream into hanging gardens, where grew innumerable Orchids, Tilland- 
sias Ferns, and Aroids from which giddy heights the last- 
mentioned dangled in the air their thread-like roots, often 100 
feet long. The glorious Vanilla that I had already found scat- 
tered on the lower reaches of the river, proved very plentiful 
d particularly during the morning and evening hours 
filled the atmosphere with the delicious aroma of its blossoms. 
Spreading- out. on either side its large symmetrical succulent leaves this 
creeper climbs the trees in a perfectly straight line, twines itself from 
branch t branch, and then turns down again to ground where it strikes 
