ST. VINCENT IN 1902, AND ON A VISIT TO MONTAGNE PELEE. 
287 
fig. 2) was situated on one of these plateaux below the end of the main Wallibu 
plateau. The vegetation is here more advanced than on the surrounding fiats, and it 
had almost concealed the aqueduct, which is such a conspicuous object in the 1902 
plate; Bamboo ( Bambusa vulgaris) is growing luxuriantly and the other plants are 
practically the same, and their growth is about as much advanced, as at the Richmond 
Plantation. 
In the Wallibu valley vegetation has made little progress, the floor being composed 
of ash and gravel which is still liable to re-arrangement by every flood, but on the 
south slopes leading up to the Morne Garu range the return has been considerable. 
The surface is still studded with the charred and bleached skeletons of trees, which 
appear to have been killed universally, with the single exception of a small lateral 
valley north of the lower part of the Richmond ridge, where a few palm trees in 
a sheltered position have recovered. The shrubs and herbaceous vegetation, which 
were all burnt level with the ground, are gradually returning, in many cases from the 
old roots, since the removal of the thin covering of ashes by the rain. The north wall 
of the Wallibu valley is precipitous and only recently relieved of its covering formed 
by the incandescent avalanche, and is still almost bare of vegetation. The top of the 
Wallibu plateau was entirely devastated. The trees remain only as bleached trunks 
except a few which have recovered in sheltered positions at the ends and south edge 
of the plateau (Plates 9, 10, 11). The dead trunks show that the ash was never more 
than a few feet thick at the most, and the whole is now covered with a luxuriant 
growth chiefly from the old roots. 
In the smaller gorges to the north, such as the Wallibu Dry River and Trespe 
discussed above, vegetation is making more progress than in the Wallibu. Their 
precipitous sides are becoming densely covered with Silver Ferns ( Gymnogramme 
calomelanos ) and creepers such as Ipomoeas, besides grasses and herbaceous plants 
(Plate 22, fig. 1). 
Along the slopes of the Soufriere, of which the ridge followed by the old Carib 
track may be taken as an example, the return of vegetation is very marked. All the 
trees without exception are killed and their stumps are becoming covered with 
Ipomoeas and other creepers, while, the ash having been much washed away, except 
along the ridges, the old soil is mostly exposed (Plate 22, fig. 2) and the vegetation is 
returning chiefly from the old roots and their progeny. In the lower part, as for 
instance where the track rises steeply out of the Trespe valley, the vegetation is so 
luxuriant as to form a tropical jungle dense enough in places to require the use of a 
cutlass to effect a passage through it (Plate 23, fig. 1). At about this height are 
masses of Rozeau ( Gynerium saccharoides), Heliconia Bihai, Tree Fern ( Cyathea 
arborea), a few trees, and a large number of shrubs and herbaceous plants, grasses 
and creepers (Ipomoeas chiefly), and the same flora continues up to the Maroon Tree, 
which is at a height of about 1000 feet. 
At about 800 feet Tree Ferns ( Cyatliea arborea) become very abundant and large 
