VEGETATION OF THE PLAIKS. 105 



ness that the spots or rings can be distinguished only in the 

 sunshine. The number of matacani, or little deer,* is so 

 considerable in the Llanos, that a trade might be carried on 

 with their skins.f A skilful hunter could easily kill more 

 than twenty in a day; but such is the indolence of the 

 inhabitants, that often they will not give themselves the 

 trouble of taking the skin. The same indifference is evinced 

 in the chase of the jaguar, a skin of which fetches only one 

 piastre in the steppes of Varinas, while at Cadiz it costs 

 four or five. 



The steppes that we traversed are principally covered 

 with grasses of the genera Killingia, Cenchrus, and Pas- 

 palum.| At this season, near Calabozo and San Jerome 

 del Pirital, these grasses scarcely attain the height of nine 

 or ten inches. Near the banks of the Apure and the Por- 

 tuguesa they rise to four feet in height, so that the jaguar 

 can conceal himself among them, to spring upon the mulea 

 and horses that cross the plain. Mingled with these gra- 

 mina some plants of the dicotyledonous class are found ; as 

 turneras, malvacese, and, what is very remarkable, little 

 mimosas with irritable leaves, || called by the Spaniards 

 dormideras. The same breed of cows, which fatten in 

 Europe on sainfoin and clover, find excellent nourishment 

 in the herbaceous sensitive plants. The pastures where 

 these shrubs particularly abound are sold at a higher price 

 than others. To the east, in the llanos of Cari and Bar- 

 celona, the cypura and the craniolaria, the beautiful white 

 flower of which is from six to eight inches long, rise soli- 

 tarily amid the gramina. The pastures are richest not only 

 around the rivers subject to inundations, but also wherever 

 the trunks of palm-trees are near each other. The least 

 fertile spots are those destitute of trees ; and attempts to 

 cultivate them would be nearly fruitless. We cannot attri- 



* They are called in the country ' Venados de tierrag calientes' (deer 

 of the warm land*.) 



f This trade is carried on, but on a very limited scale, at Carora and 

 at Barques! m eto. 



J Killingia monocephala, K. odorata, Cenchrus pilosus, Vilfa tenacis- 

 sima, Andropogon plumosum, Panicum micranthum, Poa repens, Paspa- 

 lum leptostachyum, P. conjugatum, Aristida recurvata. (Nova Genera 

 et Species Plantarum, vol. i, pp. 84-243.) 



|| The sensitive. plant (Mimosa dormiens). 



| Cypura grammea. Craniolaria annua (the scorzonera of the natives). 



