Picture of Vegeiattaii on the Surface of the Ghbe. 121 



of the date and cocoa trees, produce beautiful reflections of light 

 from the upper surface of the leaves, of a brighter green in the 

 cocoa, duller, and, as it were, mingled with grey in the date. 

 What difference of aspect between the pendent leaves of the 

 hovira palm of the Orinoco, even between those of the date or 

 the cocoa, and the branches of the jagna and pirigcto, which , 

 point toward the heaven. Nature has been prodigal of her beauties 

 to the jagna palm, which crowns the granitic rocks of the cata- 

 racts of Atures and Maypures. Their slender and smooth stems <- 

 attain a height of 160 or 170 feet ; so that, according to the ex- 

 pression of Bernardin de Saint Pierre, they rise in the form of a 

 portico above the forests. Their aerial cyme contrasts in a sur- 

 prising manner with the dense foliage of the ceiha trees, with 

 the forests of laurels and melastomata which surround it. In 

 the palms with palmated leaves, the tufted foliage is often placed 

 upon a bed of withered leaves, which gives to these vegetables a 

 melancholy character. 



" In all parts of the world, the form of the palms is associated 

 with that of the bananas. Their stem less elevated, but more 

 succulent, is almost herbaceous, and crowned with leaves of a 

 thin and loose structure, with nerves delicate and shining like 

 silk. The groves of bananas are the ornaments of the humid 

 districts. From their fruit is derived the subsistence of all the in- 

 habitants of the tropics ; they have accompanied man from the 

 infancy of civilization. If the vast and monotonous fields which 

 are covered by the cereal plants, diffused by cultivation in the 

 northern countries of the earth, afford little embellishment to the . 

 aspect of nature, the inhabitant of the tropics, on the contrary, 

 in establishing himself, multiplies, by his banana plantations, one 

 of the most noble and magnificent of the forms of vegetation. 



" The delicately pinnated leaves of the mimoscE, acacia, gledit- 

 sice, tamarinds, &c., have a form which the vegetables peculi- 

 arly affect between the tropics. It occurs, however, beyond the 

 limits of the torrid zone ; for these plants are not wanting in the 

 United States of America, where vegetation is more varied and 

 more vigorous than in Europe, although in a similar latitude. 

 The deep blue of the sky of the torrid zone, as perceived 

 through their delicately pinnated foliage, has an extremely pic- 

 turesque effect. 



