Notes on Plants at Roraima. 177 
gigantic (that is, gigantic in the size of the thickets, which 
from the communal habit of the species it forms) and 
handsome climbing fern {Gleichenia pubescens H.B.K. 
[No. 343]). Among the shrubs also are two palms ; one, 
in vast quantities, a very stout and ere6l stemmed, large 
leaved Geonoma, before mentioned, (G. Appuniana 
[No. 382J) ; the other occurring only in a few scattered 
examples, a Euterpe, possibly E. edulis Martius 
[358] but, if so, in a most remarkably stunted and 
dwarfed form. It is worth noting here that, despite 
the reported specific abundance, by Schomburgk and 
APPUN, of palms about Roraima, these are literally the 
only two plants of that family which I saw on the moun- 
tain. Under the shrubs forming this jungle the ground 
was everywhere swathed with mosses closely intermin- 
gled with innumerable ferns, especially filmy ferns ; and 
this mossy covering reached up over the tree stems and 
branches everywhere but where the sunlight fell. Under 
the shade of these shrubs, too, in the darkness and 
damp, grew various high-drawn terrestrial orchids, pallid 
plants with inconspicuous and pale flowers, such as 
Stenoptera viscosa Reich, f. [No. 131]. 
Undoubtedly the most striking feature of the vegeta- 
tion of this jungle belt was the marvellous abundance 
and variety of the ferns. Of these, two seem to require 
special mention here. One is the Gymnogramme [No. 181] 
already mentioned as occurring also on the rocks in the 
swamp, and which indeed was abundantly distributed 
from the swamp nearly to the top of the mountain. It 
will be further mentioned in connection with a closely 
allied species occurring on the top. The second fern to 
be distinguished represents a very remarkable new 
Z 
