248 TlMEHRI. 
to systematic botany, and whose genius and sagacity are 
unrivalled in the branch of the profession he has followed. 
Just as one would infer from what I have said of 
the physical features of the surface, Orchidese are 
rare. Near the fall are three or four species of 
Sobralia, some with white, and others with purple 
bloom, as large as that of Cattleya superba, but 
of a very fugacious character. How gay they look with 
their beautiful flowers, in their freedom and safety from 
all collectors, on the crags and interstices of the walls of 
the great precipices of the fall! Two of the species hug 
the Kaieteur and the dew-moistened ground near by 
very closely, and can hardly be regarded as any part of 
the savannah flora. There were, as well, two or three 
dull flowered species of Epidendnnn, but the only other 
orchid of interest was Epistephium parviflorum> Lind., 
a more strictly terrestrial plant, whose roots penetrate 
the ground so deeply that I was unable to dig specimens 
with my cutlass. It has peculiarly interesting foliage, and 
purple flowers, neither so large nor so showy, however, 
as those of the Sobralias. Vanilla palmarum abounds 
in some of the copses, with brown sunburnt leaves and 
stems, and one or two small Pleurothallis. Among the 
big Brocchinia on the heated rocks with hardly any, 
if any, soil, a genus near Catasetum abounds in 
great plenty. One would think the plants were 
half roasted daily by the heat which the rocks 
absorb. During the winter rainy season they make 
their growth and flower. In August the tufts of erect 
fleshy bulbs drop their leaves, and they remain naked 
and inactive till December. 
