250 TlMEHRI. 
the inhabitants of which henceforth become its fierce 
guardians against all depredators whatsoever, consider- 
ing not even the praiseworthy collector. In gathering 
specimens of it I had to sit patiently by the bush and nip 
a flower between the raids the ants made to the remote 
tips of the leaves every time I touched the plant. The ant 
is a medium sized black creature, one of the most fierce 
and venomous of the family. It has been asked whether 
the nest in this case forms part of the plant, as in Hydno- 
phytnm and Myrmecodia, whose stems are tunnelled by 
sinuous passages by ants, which causes an abnormal 
enlargement of the part affected. No, in this instance, 
and those of the orchids I have alluded to, the plant 
simply lives in the material of which the nest is made ; 
in which its roots seem to thrive, for they ramify freely 
and are carefully kept concealed by the crust of the nest. 
In the next number of Timehri I hope to give a com- 
plete list of the Kaieteur plants, when may also be pub- 
lished, I hope, some of the new species. 
