164 TlMEHRI. 
the top of the mountain by a ledge running obliquely up 
this south-eastern face of its cliff. 
It was not till we reached the top that we saw 
the most remarkable features in the wonderful plant- 
life of this very distinct area of vegetation ; but 
even while only approaching the base of the moun- 
tain, which for convenience of description I will take 
to be marked, on the south-eastern side, by the bed 
of the Kookenaam river, and while we were still far 
off we saw for the first time plants which we after- 
wards found commonly on Roraima — the out-posts, as 
it were, of the remarkable group of plant-forms centred 
on Roraima. And from the moment when the first of 
these distinctive plants of the mountain was met with 
till the moment, some weeks later, when we reached the 
top we ever travelled onward into a more and more 
peculiar flora. 
Our discovery on the savannah, a full day's journey 
from Roraima, of the first out-post of the vegetation of 
that mountain was a very distinct event. We found a 
well-marked dense patch, perhaps some 40 yards in 
diameter, of Abolboda sceptrum, nov. sp. OLIVER, 
[No. 312], a compact and dwarf, yucca-like plant — a 
rosette, perhaps a foot and half in diameter, of most 
acutely needle-pointed leaves. This plant appeared 
again in patches once or twice before we reached Ro- 
raima, and formed much of the turf, as it were, both of 
the savannah slope of the base of that mountain and also 
on the top. Wherever it appeared, it was a constant 
source of annoyance and of danger, not only to the naked 
feet of my Indian companions, but also to our own can- 
vas-clad feet. Luckily, a rumour which in some way 
