l68 TlMEHRI. 
our visit, Mr. SlEDEL, an orchid collector, having set 
the Indians to work to collect this plant for him, I have 
seen these people, ten or twelve of them, come into 
camp, afternoon after afternoon, each laden with a basket, 
a good load for a man, full of these lovely plants, many 
of them then in full flower. One day, too, I myself, 
having gone down to the Kookenaam to bathe, just 
round the small pool I choose for that purpose, gathered 
two most glorious clumps of this orchid, the better 
of the two having five spikes of flower, of which one 
spike bore nine, and each of the others eight blossoms, 
in all forty-one of some of the largest and loveliest 
coloured Cattleya flowers ever seen, on a single small 
plant, the roots of which easily lay on my extended hand.* 
Before now dealing with the plants actually of Rorai- 
ma, it will be convenient to say a few further words as 
to the form of this south-eastern face of the montain. 
From the bed of the Kookenaam at Teroota [3751 feet 
above sea level] the mountain slopes, somewhat gradual- 
ly, though of course not evenly, upward, for a distance of 
about three miles, till a height of 5000 feet is attained. 
This last mentioned point is that to which a considerable 
number of the plants belonging to the ordinary savan- 
nah vegetation of Guiana ascend.f From this point 
the mountain rises, at first somewhat more abrupt- 
ly and then again more gradually, so as to form, 
* Full description of the Cattleya have been given in the Gardener's 
Chronicle, Vol. 23, pp. 374-5. See also Timehri, Vol. 4 and Vol. 5. 
f The most conspicuous of the few plants of the ordinary plain 
which ascend above this point are Sida linifolia, Polygala hygrophyla, 
H.B.K., P. longicaulis, H.B.K., P, variabilis, H B.K., Drosera commu- 
nis, A. St. Hil, Pleroma Tibouchinum, Sr., Sipaneu pratensis Aubl., 
Pectis elongata, H.B.K., Gnaphalium spicatum, Lam. 
