6 REMARKS AND OPINIONS. 



The kind of rock which is seen in the clift's that 

 rise above the water in the channel, and on the 

 shore, is every where coarse-grained granite. 



The bays are bounded by inaccessible morasses, 

 which are covered with forests of green mangrove 

 and towering pahns. An impenetrable forest, which 

 clothes the mountains, extends, ahnost without 

 interruption, over the country. The siliquose 

 plants, with variously feathered leaves, lofty stems, 

 and branches spread out like a fan, seem to be 

 predominant, accompanied however with all the 

 usual forms of trees in rich variety. The arbor- 

 escent ferns, with elegant palm -like forms, at- 

 tain no greater height than fifteen or twenty 

 feet, and are hidden in the thick w^ood. Parasite 

 plants (Lianes) of every kind (and all classes and 

 families of plants here assume this form,) make, 

 between the ground, the trunks, and the tops, a 

 thickly-interwoven wonderful net. Ferns, grasses, 

 {Cyperacece, Helicojiia,') he. far exceeding the 

 height of a man, luxuriate on the ground amidst 

 fallen trees. Another vegetable world of OrcJiidecPf 

 Bromeliacece, Cactus^ Piper, ferns, &c. wave aloft 

 among the branches ; and the Tillandsia usneoides 

 hangs the crowns of aged trees with silver locks. 



The paths cut in this dark wilderness are soon at 

 an end ; and he whowould penetrate it, finds it im- 

 possible to reach even the top of the nearest hills. 



The Aroidece flourish on the sloping banks of the 

 streams which are collected in the clefts of the 

 mountains ; gigantic Cactus form in places singular 



