THE ISTHMUS OF PANAMA. 301 
almost held in religious veneration by the inhabitants, and eagerly 
sought for when in blossom. The Biura (Petrea volubilis, Jacq.) isa 
flower of whose beauty those who have only seen it in European conser- 
vatories can form but an inadequate idea. Nothing can be more charming 
during the dry season, than the sight of whole groves overspread 
with the long blue racemes of this creeper—it almost baffles descrip- 
tion. The Palo de buba (Jacaranda Bahamensis, R. Brown) is another 
of those exquisite plants, on which poets delight to try their pen, and 
painters their brush. When this noble tree rises on the banks of the 
rivers, amidst the dark foliage of a luxuriant vegetation, and waves its 
large azure panicles in the air, the foot is involuntarily arrested, and 
we gaze for some time quite lost in wonder and admiration. 
There are also a number of plants which exhale a delicious perfume. 
A long list of them could be cited, but it may suffice to enumerate the 
Flor de Aroma (Acacia Farnesiana, Willd.), Buenas tardes (Mirabilis 
Jalapa, Linn.), the different Caracuchas (Plumieria sp.), Copecillo olo- 
roso (Clusia sp.), Dama de noche (Cestrum paniculatum, Willd.), Gua- 
vito cansaboca (Pithecolobium ligustrinum, Bth.), Jasinto (Melia semper- 
virens, Swartz), Jasmin de monte (Tabernemontana alba, Mill.), Nnorbo 
(Passiflora biflora, Lam.), and Manglillo (Ternstrómia brevipes, De Cand.) 
Some of them emit an odour almost too strong to be agreeable. I 
recollect, when ascending the Chagres in September 1846, all the 
trees of Pithecolobium ligustrinum, which adorn the banks, were in full © 
flower; and so powerful was their smell, even in the middle of the 
river, that I became quite giddy, and was ultimately compelled to put 
cotton into my nostrils to exclude the perfume. 
The most famous, however, of all the ornamental plants is the Cou- 
roupita odoratissima, Seem., combining a most delicious fragrance with _ 
a splendid flower. In the Morro, a forest near the village of Rio - 
Jesus, are four of these trees, which are considered by the inhabitants — 
as the only ones that exist in the country, and the greatest curiosities _ 
Veraguas can boast; and, indeed, I myself have never observed them — 
in any other locality. They form a groupe, and are vernacularly 
termed Palos de Paraiso (i. e., Paradise trees), or Granadillos, deriving 
the former name from their beauty and the latter from the close resem- 
blance which their flowers bear in shape and size to those of the Gra- 
nadilla (Passiflora quadrangularis, Linn.). The trees are from sixty 
to eighty feet high, and up to an elevation of twenty feet, where the 
