Remarks on the Kaieteur Savannah. 247 
composed of short bracteate cones diverging from a com- 
mon axis, with bright yellow petals. The leaves spread 
only right and left, so that the plants look like large fans 
stuck in the ground. With these, producing a very 
dense growth, are two species of Abolboda, the leaves 
and roots of which are said to be used for itch and 
leprosy. They are strictly marsh-plants, very near 
Commelyneas, with pretty, but fugacious, blue flowers. 
The back-ground or centre of these groups is usually 
made up by clusters of the big kcii'zvatsa* while 
the skirts, wherever a little soil exists, are decked 
with pretty bright-eyed Sauvagesias and dwarf Utri- 
cularias, among which, though not so plentifully, are such 
little subjects as Burmannia tricolor, Polygala appressa 
Muroneria tenera and a Sipanea near acinifolia, — all 
delicate bright-flowered things. 
Especially in that part of the savannah lying west of 
the Kaieteur, a dwarf Apocynaceoits plant abounds, with 
yew-like leaves and large yellow flowers resembling the 
bloom of some of the smaller flowered Allamandas. In 
the moist seasons of the year it contributes much to 
enliven the more bare and barren parts of the ground. 
The most casual observer would regard it as one of the 
characteristic features of the region. It bears the 
honoured name of Mr. BENTHAM {Mandevillia Benthami) 
whose life for the last sixty years, with singular 
patience and industry, has been devoted without reward 
* The Indians I met on the savannah seemed to apply the name 
" Karwat," which they used in regard to several of the species I had 
gathered, to all, or nearly all, the Bromeliacea, and they did not uni- 
formly distinguish the " Karivataa," or large Broccldrtia by the addition 
of the final syllable, 
HH I / 
