296 POPULAR GEOGRAPHY OF PLANTS. 



child might stand on it with perfect safety, supposing some 

 flat surface were first placed on it to prevent the feet from 

 going through the green tissue in the spaces between the 

 nerves. 



Beautiful examples may be found- in the part of the 

 world where we now are, of the very various forms (before 

 alluded to) which are to be seen in the Palm. "How ma- 

 jestic must be the Jagua Palms, which grow round the 

 granite rocks of Atures and Maypures !" The falls of Nia- 

 gara attract many a wanderer to North America, and we 

 hear of this wonder of the world till we fancy we know ex- 

 actly what it looks like ; " let them Jive upon their praises " 

 but those who will come with us to South America, and 

 join our excursion to the falls of Atures and Maypures, 

 will be satisfied at heart with the wild grandeur of the 

 scene. We must sail up the river Orinoco, as far as we 

 can, that is to say, for our course is checked when we 

 have made a hundred miles of our voyage, not by one, but 

 by a series of cataracts, which render all further navigation 

 up the river next to an impossibility. 



Unlike the falls of Niagara, which are formed by one 

 enormous mass of water precipitated from a height of a 

 hundred and fifty feet, the cataracts of Maypures consist of 



