'72 OVEE THE MOUNTAINS TO THE LLANOS. 



fibres for cordage, bowstrings, fish-nets, lines, sails, baskets, 

 cloth, and liammocks — all these from a single tree, supply- 

 ing the people in abundance with all the necessaries of 

 existence, is only another instance of the wonderful pro- 

 fuseness and adaptation of Nature, in this rude and uncul- 

 tivated land, for suppljdng the wants of its inhabitants. 



But of the many and varied forms of vegetation that 

 shoot up in such rich luxuriance along the banks of the 

 Pao, and adorn the forests and the plains of this humid 

 clime, forming such a distinctive feature in the landscape, 

 none, perhaps, impresses the traveller from northern lati- 

 tudes more than the group of grasses. Among these the 

 gudua or bamboo [Bamhusa gudud) is by far the most 

 majestic and picturesque. It is also a most useful plant 

 to the natives, furnishing them material for building, 

 their hollow stems serving for posts and rafters ; and, when 

 split and laid open, they form boards for enclosing their 

 huts; and their joints, which are filled with a refreshing 

 drink for the thirsty traveller, answer for cups, vessels, 

 and various other puri^oses. This arborescent grass loves 

 a humid soil, and is found abundant along the borders 

 of streams, where the stems shoot up in thick clumps to the 

 height of forty and even fifty feet, with a diameter of 

 from four to six inches.* Masses of long, slender leaves 

 crown the summit of these pliant trunks, bending them 

 downward by their weight into graceful curves, which, by 

 tlieir union over streams that they line, form long, beauti- 

 ful arcades of evergreen verdure, through which the voya- 

 ger floats in his canoe, his pathway gleaming with myri- 

 ads of insects, that rival in the brilliancy of their color- 

 ing the richest gems. "Their slender forms are suscepti- 

 ble to the slightest breeze, and, when the gale of the hurri- 



* Fletcher makes mention of this giant grass being found, on the 

 Organ Mountains of Brazil, from eighty to one hundred feet in height 

 and eighteen inches in diameter. 



