-'44 TlMEHRl. 
the close-sheathing leaves, through nearly all seasons, 
much moisture gathered from rain and dew. It turned out 
to be the large and curious Utricularia Humboldtii, the 
most showy and interesting of all the dozen members of 
the genus which I gathered on my journey. As, after a 
very vigilant search over the savannah, no plant was dis- 
covered in any other situation, I was disposed to regard 
it as inseparable from the karwatsa, as the Indians call 
the Brocchinia, but I find that SCHOMBURGK gathered it 
at Roraima, and other collectors further south. Few of my 
discoveries delighted me so much as this when I realised 
the real conditions of its existence, but at first I stood for 
a moment puzzled beyond measure to account for the gay 
flowers apparently, and yet not possibly, the production 
of the karwatsa. Supposing for a moment that plants 
possess sentient feeling, it must be admitted they 
often appear to take mean advantage of one another 
in securing to themselves good conditions of life, for 
which they seem to strive in a quiet but very effectual 
way to gain or sacrifice every interest previously 
possessed by a neighbour, yielding nothing in return; 
but to such imagined selfishness this Utricularia is a 
chivalrous exception. Without injuring in the least the 
great plant which supports its life, it lifts its stems high 
and throws the glory of its beautiful bloom over the 
broad pallid head that has afforded it a home. 
A parallel case, of plants nearly allied to these, is 
mentioned by GARDNER in his " Travels in the Interior of 
Brazil," to which I have already adverted as indicating 
the possible identification of one of them with Brocchinia 
cordylinoides. He says: — "I collected a very 
