Balata and the Balata Industry. 163 
nah which rolls away in low undulations many miles 
beyond the limit of one's sight. The view is only broken 
here and there by the Corentyn forest away to the left, 
and the narrow belts of trees that skirt the arms of the 
Canje that penetrate it at remote intervals. The general 
level I judged to be 50 or 60 feet above the river. The 
flora I found, naturally, very largely identical with that 
of the Corentyn savannahs, which, though remote, are 
part of the same region. It presents great variety, is 
generally rich in colour, and very interesting. Flowers 
are not plentiful enough, though abundant and in many 
instances beautiful in an exceptional kind of way, to give 
colour to the ground. They are partly concealed too by 
the rather long grass. Yet it would be difficult to gather 
anywhere a more charming bunch of wild flowers than 
this savannah afforded at the time of my visit. Much 
of the novel effect is due, I have no doubt, to the ex- 
quisite shades of colour above alluded to, combined 
with unusual and unique or quaint forms. Among 
the latter is the subarborescent scirpus — S. para- 
doxus — which strews the ground abundantly. Here 
and there, there are hillocks which have been thrown 
up by ants, and are now occupied by sedges and 
strong-growing grasses, with a few shrubs, but copses 
of stronger shrubs and small trees are few. As 
usual on these savannahs, not many of the grasses 
were in flower, but, with this exception, the fol- 
lowing is a tolerably complete list of the plants I 
saw, and is typical of the general savannah flora of 
the colony : — 
Curatella americana Jonidium Ipecacuana 
Tetracera ovalifolia Polygala longicaulis 
V2 
