380 Foreign Notices : — America. 



single Cactus, with the exception of Opuntia hdrrida ; but he made a very 

 good collection of new land-shells in the short space of two months. After 

 that time he returned home. I remained six months longer at Cuba, visited 

 several parts of that beautiful island, and went as far as Trinidad de Cuba, on 

 the south coast, where 1 got poisoned by cutting a branch of Comocladia 

 flicifolia, which obliged me to return to the Havannah. My face and body 

 swelled to an immense size, and 1 had to suffer a great deal. I found nothing 

 very particular at Cuba, but yet I made a pretty good collection. The island 

 is too much cultivated for the botanist, and not safe enough to travel alone ; 

 the Simarones, or the runaway negroes, being very dangerous. I wrote for 

 new leave, support, and permission to visit South America ; which being all 

 granted for another year by the government, I left Havannah in the end of 

 September, 1839, and sailed to New York, the shortest wa}- to get to La 

 Guayra (South America), as there is no opportunity direct from Havannah to 

 La Guayra. 



Nothing need be said about gardening in New York ; the Linnaean Botanic 

 Garden and Nurseries of W. Prince and Son, at Flushing, being the only good 

 establishment : his collection, particularly the trees and shrubs, is pretty rich. 

 At Philadelphia there are more love and taste for gardening. Mr. Buist has a 

 most beautiful establishment : it contains a fine collection of good, new, and 

 well cultivated plants. Bartram's Botanic Garden is an old establishment 

 (since 1717), famous for some ancient and large trees, as Quercus hetero- 

 phylla (Bartram's oak), 40 ft. high ; Bign6n/« radicans, 10 ft. high, and 

 the stem 14 in. in diameter; Cupressus disticha, 98 years old, 60 ft. to 70 ft. 

 high, stem 4 ft. in diameter. The magnolias and pines are very fine. My old 

 friend, INIr. Brackenridge, was then at Rio Janeiro ; he went as botanist and 

 gardener to the United States' exploring expedition to South America. 



After a short stay at New York, I sailed for La Guayra, where I soon made 

 a good collection of Cacti, orchideous plants, &c. Some months afterwards I 

 went to Caraccas, whence I ascended to the very top of the Cordilleras, the 

 Silla de Caraccas, 8100 ft. above the level of the sea, where I found beautiful 

 and rare plants, as the Bejari« glauca, /edifolia, Gaulther/« odorata, and many 

 ferns and orchideous plants. I next visited the valleys of Aragua, the famous 

 Lake of Valencia, the finely situated town of Valencia, and Puerto Caballo, 

 where I made good collections. Near Caraccas I found the Galactodendron 

 utile, the cow tree (Palo de Vaca), but on a very different spot from where 

 Alex, de Humboldt and Sir Robert Ker Porter found it. I drank a good 

 quantity of the milk, alone and mixed with water and coffee, and was not able 

 to distinguish it from common milk. It is very little used by the inhabitants. 

 The trees were about 90 ft. high. The young plants which I sent home died 

 on the passage. 



At the end of September, 1840, I left La Guayra, with the intention of 

 going by the Orinoko, Rio Negro, and Amazone rivers to Para, the northern 

 province of the Brazils. I was accompanied by a Brazilian naturalist from 

 La Guayra. I went by sea to Cumana, thence by land and river to Cu- 

 manaroa. I visited the famous cavern at Caripe (the Cueva de Guacharo), 

 and discovered its very end. Baron de Humboldt entered only one third. 

 M. Coilazzi, who was employed as geographer and naturalist by the govern- 

 ment of Venezuela, for making a correct map of the republic, and to distin- 

 guish her boundaries, &c. &c., explored this famous cavern nearly to its 

 termination, but did not pass the little lake which stops the road in the 

 cavern. When I came to this spot, the Indians told me that no person could 

 go any further, and that those who entered the lake would be drowned. 

 After more than half an hour's persuasion, I at last prevailed on them to go 

 further; and with the greatest danger we passed the lake (8 ft. deep, upon 

 soft bottom), and mounted the little hill, on the other sitle of which we again 

 met with water, and could not advance more than ten minutes, because the 

 cavern finishes there in a pointed angle, where only a little water enters, which 

 forms the small river runnin'r through the whole cavern. The Indians were 



