ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 193 



yards, it was so shallow and so full of sand-banks that the Expedi- 

 tion were obliged to dig channels, the river bed being only fifteen 

 inches deep. Fresh water Dolphins were still to be seen everywhere 

 in large numbers; a phenomenon which the zoologists of the 18th 

 century would not have been prepared to expect in the Orinoco and 

 the Ganges. 



( 7 ) p. 173." The most vigorous of the productions of the 



tropical world." 



The Bertholletia excelsa ( Juvia), of the family of Myrtacese (an d 

 placed in Richard Schomburgk's proposed division of Lecythidese) , 

 was first described by Bonpland and myself in the "Plantes equi- 

 noxiales," t. i. 1808, p. 122, tab. 36. This gigantic and magnifi- 

 cent tree offers, in the perfect formation of its cocoa-like, round, 

 thick, woody fruit enclosing the three-cornered and also woody 

 seed-vessels, the most remarkable example of high organic develop- 

 ment. The Bertholletia grows in the forests of the Upper Orinoco 

 between the Padamo and the Ocamu, near the mountain of Mapaya, 

 and also between the rivers Amaguaca and G-ehette. (Relation 

 historique, t ii. pp. 474, 496, 558-562.) 



( s ) p. 173. " Grass stalks having joints above eighteen feet long 



from knot to knot" 



Robert Schomburgk, when visiting the small mountainous country 

 of the Majonkongs, on his way to Esmeralda, was so fortunate as to 

 determine the species of Arundinaria which furnishes the material 

 for the blowpipes or tubes through which the Indians discharge 

 their arrows. He says of this plant : " It grows in large tufts like 

 the Bambusa ; the first joint rises without a knot to a height of from 

 16 to 17 feet before it begins to put forth leaves. The entire height 

 of the Arundinaria, as it grows at the foot of the great mountain of 

 Maravaca, is from 30 to 40 feet, with a thickness of scarcely half an 

 inch diameter. The top is always inclined. This kind of grass 

 is peculiar to the sandstone mountains between the Yentuari, the 

 Pararnu (Padamo), and the Mavaca. The Indian name is Curata, 

 and hence, from the excellence of these far-famed blow tubes of 

 great length, the Majonkongs and Guinaus of these districts have 

 17 



