68 
BLUEFIELDS. 
rude angles and gaping crevices of the latter, like a 
thick and soft green carpet thrown loosely over them. 
The Broadleaf {Terminalia), a great timber tree, with 
leaves that remind one of those of our horse-chestnut 
in form, but immensely larger, and bearing edible nuts, 
like almonds, is a common tree in this region ; and 
the edges of the woods are occupied by Clidemia and 
other forms of Melastomaceous shrubs, whose leaves, 
divided by a few longitudinal ribs, and crossed by 
transverse ones at right angles, have so very singular 
an appearance to an European observer. Among 
them stands conspicuous for beauty Blakea trinervia^ 
whose expanded crimson flower has received the 
name of the Jamaica Rose ; a tall shrub or small 
tree, with smooth but not glossy leaves of a lively 
green, supported by three nerve-ribs. 
It was here that I first became acquainted with 
those elegant plants, perhaps more than almost any 
others peculiarly characteristic of tropical vegetation, 
the Tree-ferns. Many specimens were growing on 
this wooded hill, but all, I believe, of one species, 
Alsophila aculeata. I gazed upwards with peculiar 
delight at the minutely fretted fronds that formed a 
wide umbrella of open work between me and the 
sky. In one respect only was I disappointed ; from 
descriptions and figures in books, I had expected to 
see the Tree-fern far loftier and more Palm-like than 
I found it. I do not think any specimen that I saw 
exceeded fifteen feet from the ground to the bases 
of the fronds ; but then the expansion much exceeded 
my pre-conceptions. I should conjecture that some 
of these trees covered with their arching shade a 
