17G THE SAVANNA OF AlilPO. 



seras, rare and various grasses, and Cyperoids of small sizes 

 and fine kinds, ^vith a species of Cassytlia; in the water, 

 Ceratupliylluni (the well-known hornwort of the English 

 ponds) and bog-mosses. Such a variety of forms and colours 

 is nowhere else to be met with in the island." 



Of the Orchids, we only found one in flower; and of the 

 rest, of course, we had time only to gather a very few of 

 the more remarkable, among which was that lovely cousin 

 of the Clerodendrons, the crimson Amasonia, which ought 

 to be in all hothouses. The low bushes, I found, were that 

 curious tree the Chaparro,^ but not the Chaparro^ so often 

 mentioned by Humboldt as abounding on the Llanos. This 

 Chaparro is remarkable, first, for the queer little Natural 

 Order to which it belongs ; secondly, for its tanning pro- 

 perties ; thirdly, for the very nasty smell of its flowers ; 

 fourthly, for the roughness of its leaves, which make one's 

 flesh creep, and are used, I believe, for polishing steel ; and 

 lastly, for its wide geographical range, from Isla de Pinos, 

 near Cuba where Columbus, to his surprise, saw true pines 

 growing in the Tropics all over the Llanos, and down to 

 Brazil; an ancient, ugly, sturdy form of vegetation, able to 

 get a scanty living out of the poorest soils, and consequently 

 triumphant, as yet, in the battle of life. 



The soil of the Savanna was a poor sandy clay, treacherous, 



^ Curatella Americana. ^ Rliopala. 



