The First Ascent of Roraima. 27 
left the place it had become quite a large and pictur- 
esque settlement. 
But I must return to the account of the beginning of 
our stay on Roraima. The savannah immediately in front 
of our houses was that same wonderful swamp which 
Richard Schomburgk had visited forty years before 
and had so enthusiastically described as " a botanical 
El Dorado "* Nor was the description inapt. It ex- 
tends over a considerable space of undulating ground, 
occupying in fa6l the whole of the upper part of the 
savannah slope, and, except where, in many places, rocks 
crop up, either singly or piled in masses, appears to the 
eye to be chiefly occupied by long waving grasses over 
which are borne innumerable rich large violet-coloured 
flowers of the lovely Utricularia Humboldtii and, on 
equally tall but branched flower-stems the quaint yellow- 
brown flowers of an orchid {Cypripediuni Lindleyanum). 
But, on looking more closely it will be found that almost 
equally abundant with the grasses are many small and 
various yucca-like plants, many heath-like Befarias, 
many more dwarf but lovely orchids, especially the 
beautiful and sweet scented Zygopetalon Bur kit and a 
rosy flowered Cleistes (C. rosea), many ferns, and 
innumerable other plants. In not very frequent places, 
where the grass is not so long, are considerable 
patches of the " pitcher-plant" of South America 
[Heliamphora nutans) , with its grotesquely pitcher- 
shaped leaves and delicate white flowers, borne on ruddy 
stems. On the rock patches, on the other hand, 
grow pretty flowered shrubs of many species, and 
among these many orchids especially a long-sprayed 
* Reisen in Britisch Guiana. 
D 2 
RY. 
