420 RI6IOST OF BAMBOOS. 



quiare. The water at the surface of the river was only 24" 

 t^when the air was at 25'6). This is nearly the tempera- 

 ture of the Bio Negro, but four or five degrees below that 

 of the Orinoco. After having passed on the west the mouth 

 of the Cafio Caterico, which has black waters of extraordi- 

 nary transparency, we left the bed of the river, to land at 

 an island on which the mission of Vasiva is established. 

 The lake which surrounds this mission is a league broad, and 

 communicates by three outlets with the Cassiquiare. The 

 surrounding country abounds in marshes which generate 

 fever. The lake, the waters of which appear yellow by 

 transmitted light, is dry in the season of great heat, and the 

 Indians themselves are unable to resist the miasmata rising 

 from the mud. The complete absence of wind contributes 

 to render the climate of this country more pernicious. 



From the 14th to the 21st of May we slept constantly in 

 the open air ; but I cannot indicate the spots where we 

 halted. These regions are so wild, and so little frequented, 

 that with the exception of a few rivers, the Indians were 

 ignorant of the names of all the objects which I set by the 

 compass. No observation of a star helped me to fix the 

 latitude within the space of a degree. After having passed 

 the point where the Itinivini separates from the Cassiquiare, 

 to take its course to the west towards the granitic hills 

 of Daripabo, we found the marshy banks of the river 

 covered with bamboos. These arborescent gramina rise to 

 the height of twenty feet ; their stem is constantly arched 

 towards the summit. It is a new species of Bambusa with 

 very broad leaves. M. Bonpland fortunately found one in 

 flower ; a circumstance I mention, because the genera Nastus 

 and Bambusa had before been very imperfectly distinguished, 

 and nothing is more rare in the New World, than to see these 

 gigantic gramina in flower. M. Mutis herborised during 

 twenty years in a country where the Bambusa guadua forms 

 marshy forests several leagues broad, without having ever 

 been able to procure the flowers. "We sent that learned 

 naturalist the first ears of Bambusa from the temperate val- 

 lifs of Popayan. It is strange that the parts of fructification 

 should develope themselves so rarely in a plant which ia 

 indigenous, and which vegetates with such extraordinary 

 vigour, from the level of the sea to the height of nine hundred 



