158 TlMEHRI. 
in the river vegetation of the colony. It leaves the im- 
pression too, if the forest be not examined from within, 
that palm vegetation is deficient, whereas in fact palms, 
particular the coquerite, occupy a singularly large extent 
of the forest to the exclusion over vast tracts of more use- 
ful trees. On the upper part of the river the manicole 
is represented by its near congener the rayhoo — Euterpe 
stenophylla — which lifts its graceful head clear through 
the forest over a hundred feet from the ground, the pliant 
stem bending its whole length with the fitful, loitering 
breeze. Here too the etae is most abundant, and espe- 
cially fine ; nearer the savannah it is gregarious and a 
paramount feature. As undergrowth dalebanna and 
parapee-balli are common in places, and along the banks 
three or four species of pimplers — Bactris and Desmon- 
cus — are abundant. One of these is a climbing palm 
which ascends and trails over branches of trees. On the 
Icooroowa, where it lines the banks for miles, I saw a 
stem quite 150 feet long. Split up, the stems make the 
most of durable basket material. Where the estates 
were on the upper part of the river the African oil- 
palm — Elseis guineensis — is now naturalised and multi- 
plying in the forest. * At existing settlements, though 
so far from the sea, the cocoanut-tree is common, and 
on this river it excels in gracefulness any cocoanut-tree 
I have ever seen, and often the finely curved branches 
have the long purse-like mocking bird's nests hanging 
from their pendant ends. At Richmond Hill there 
is a fine plantation of thirty acres of this nut. Loo 
* This was introduced during the last century to the West Indies 
and Guiana by slaves. On the islands as well as here it has long been 
naturalised. The African trade in oil reaches ^100,000 annually. 
