Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 82.djvu/36

32 plants met with was a species of Utricularia, U. montana, sometimes seen in cultivation. Unlike most of the genus, this is an epiphyte, and the drooping racemes of big white flowers might very well be mistaken for an orchid.

As is usual at the higher elevations in the tropics, the lower plants are relatively more abundant than at lower elevations. Besides, the tree ferns there were many others, including several Hymenophyllaceæ and two species of Danæa, which were growing abundantly upon the wet banks, and whose large liverwort-like prothallia were found in quantity. The wet banks also yielded a fair number of liverworts, and at the very summit the ubiquitous Lycopodium cernuum was abundant. Mosses and lichens also abounded, but no notes were made of the species.

To the botanist visiting this region for the first time, the abundance and variety of the palms will first attract attention. Many of them are exceptionally beautiful, and they often grow in large masses giving a characteristic stamp to the forest vegetation. Palms are a far more conspicuous feature in the South American tropical forest than in any part of the eastern tropics with which the writer is acquainted. The Araceæ, also, are more numerous and varied than in the tropics of the old world, and none of the old-world forms can rival the giant scandent genera, like Philodendron and Monstera, which are so characteristic of the American tropical forests.

Of the numerous Scitamineæ the common Heliconias with their gorgeous inflorescences will first attract attention, and of course the peculiarly American family, Bromeliaceæ, will be of special interest to the European visitor.

The prevalence of showy flowers in Surinam was noteworthy, as this is not a common feature in the wet tropics, a fact frequently commented on by scientific travelers. Whether or not the two go together, it may be mentioned that in Surinam there is also an extraordinary abundance of brilliant butterflies, some of them of wonderful beauty.

In Trinidad the prevalence of showy flowers was much less marked than in Surinam, although it is by no means deficient in striking flowers. As has already been stated, Trinidad in the main features of its flora belongs rather with the continental region of South America than with the other islands of the West Indies.