ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 47 



very remarkable physiological fact), also sea water. In tlie Society, 

 Friendly, and Sandwich Islands, the light green, thick-stalked 

 sugar-cane is always the one cultivated. 



Besides the Cana de Otaheiti and the Cana criolla, a reddish 

 African variety, called Cana de Guinea, is cultivated in the West 

 Indies: its juice is less in quantity than that of the common Asiatic 

 cane, but is said to be better suited for making rum. 



In the province of Caraccas, the dark shade, of the cacao planta- 

 tions contrasts beautifully with the light green of the Tahitian sugar 

 cane. Few tropical trees have such thick foliage as the Theobronia 

 cacao. It loves Jhot and humid valleys : great fertility of soil and 

 insalubrity of atmosphere are inseparable from each other in South 

 America as well as in Asia j and it has even been remarked that, as 

 increasing cultivation lessens the extent of the forests, and renders 

 the soil and climate less humid, the cacao plantations become less 

 flourishing. For these reasons, these plantations are diminishing 

 in number and extent in the province of Caraccas, and increasing 

 rapidly in the more eastern provinces of New Barcelona and Cumana, 

 and particularly in the moist woody district between Cariaco and the 

 Golfo Triste. 



( 3 ) p. 25. " 'JBanks' is the name given ty tlie natives to this 



phenomenon." 



The Llanos of Caraccas are occupied by a great and widely ex- 

 tended formation of conglomerate of an early period. In descend- 

 ing from the valleys of Aragua, and crossing over the most southern 

 ridge of the coast chain of Gruigue and Villa de Cura towards Para- 

 para, one finds successively, gneiss and mica slate.; a probably 

 Silurian formation of clay slate and black limestone ; serpentine 

 and greenstone in detached spheroidal masses; and, lastly, close to 

 the margin of the great plain, small h4Hs-of augitic, amygdaloid, and 

 porphyritic slate. These hills between Parapara and Ortiz appear 

 to me like volcanic eruptions on the ancient sea-shore of the Llanos. 

 Farther to the north are the celebrated grotesque-shaped cavernous 

 rocks of Morros de San Juan ; they form a kind of rampart, have a 

 crystalline grain like upheaved dolomite, and are rather to be re- 

 garded as parts of the shore of the ancient gulf than as islands. I 



