Guiana. 
542 
or dry seasons, which are distinguished from each 
——~—— other by the appellation of the grealer and the smaller, 
“Diseases. 
Vegetable 
produc- 
tions, 
Mountain 
cabbage. 
-occasionally come during the night. 
referring not to the intensity of the heat, or the vio- 
‘Jence of the rains in the one more than the other, but 
to their duration. The long wet season begins about 
the middle of April, declines in August, and ceases’ in 
September; when the short dry season commences, 
and continues till the middle of November. Then 
comes on the short wet season, which lasts till the 
middle of January, when the long dry season appears, 
which does not terminate till the middle of April. 
During this last period, especially in the month of 
March, the weather is most pleasant, the atmosphere 
-clear and pure, the climate genial and cool. There are 
frequent variations in these stated periods; and the 
changes are generally accompanied with tremendous 
«storms of thunder and lightning, which sometimes 
prove fatal both to the inhabitants and the cattle of the 
country. In the wet season, though the rain falls in 
torrents, yet it is generally in the afternoon ; and in 
the dry season, there is rarely a drought, but showers 
he earth is thus, 
during the whole year, adorned with perpetual ver- 
-dure, the trees loaded at the same time with blossoms 
and ripe fruit; and the whole presenting to the view 
a delightful union of spring and of summer. There are 
‘no hurricanes to destroy the crops of the planter ; and 
rarely are any earthquakes felt in the level districts. 
There are few contagious disorders in Guiana; 
and by temperate living, together with proper care to 
avoid the mid-day heat and evening dews, Europeans 
have been able to preserve a state of excellent health 
in the country. The principal disease is fever, in a 
variety of forms and degrees, from the simple intermit- 
tant to the dreaded yellow fever. A prickly heat, or 
scarlet eruption, is frequently experienced, which causes 
extreme itching, but is considered rather as friendly to 
health. The stings of the musquitoes or gnats are often 
succeeded by large pimples, which are apt to be con- 
verted by scratching into troublesome ulcers, The 
ring-worm consists of long scarlet spots, chiefly about 
the face and neck, and is prevented from spreading b 
the immediate application of lime-juice mixed wit 
gun-powder, The chigoe, or jigger, is a kind of sand- 
flea, which lodges under the toe-nails, between the skin 
and the flesh, and unless extracted as soon as the itch- 
ing which they occasion is felt, are apt to produce very 
deep and fretting ulcers. The yaws, a dreadful dis- 
order resembling the small-pox, and covering the 
body with large ulcers, is extremely infectious, but 
seems peculiar to the negro race. Dry gripes, bloody 
flux, and dropsy, are also frequent. 
The vegetable productions of Guiana are exceedingly 
numerous, and many of them particularly worthy of no- 
tice, both as objects of curiosity and as articles of utility. 
The trees in the forests grow to an immense size, many 
of their trunks rising to thé height of 100 feet, and throw- 
ing out at the lower extremity a number of flattened 
projections, which surround the stem like supporting 
buttresses, and form deep recesses, capable sometimes of 
affording shelter to 10 or 12 persons. The mountain 
pore unrivalled in the vegetable world, has a 
straight tapering trunk 100 feet in height, and 7 or 8 
feet in circumference, branches 20 feet in length, diverg- 
ing in a horizontal direction, palmated narrow leaves 
above 2 feet long, a green husky pod 20 inches in length 
at the clefts of the lower beach full of nuts, which 
are the seeds of the plant; and,.on the summit of 
the trunk, the cabbage, consisting of thin white 
» ; 
GUIANA. 
strata, and resembling an almond in taste. The silk 
cotton tree, generally growing to the height of 100 ; 
feet, with a trunk 12 feet in circumference, and free Silk co 
of branches for the space -of 70 feet, bears a pod tree. 
full of silky filaments. The red mangrove tree; pea 
growing in marshy places, rises from a number of grove tre 
roots, which appear several feet above ground, before 
they are joined together to form the main trunk, which . 
is generally tall and large, hard, and good for sacrtme. 
and numerous ligneotts shoots, without leaves or branch- 
es, descend from the stem and the lateral boughs to- ~ 
wards the ground, where they take root, andlike props _ 
or pillars, afford support to the tree in its watery soil. 
The cocoa nut tree, growing. to the height of GO or 80 Cocoa ny 
feet, but seldom perfectly straight, bears fruit at the tee 
age of six or eight years. The pipeira tree, about 70 Pipeiratr 
feet high, and 9 in circumference, affords a weigh’ 
durable timber, and bears a small round fruit of a fari- 
naceous nature, which is sometimes used by the Indians 
as food. Among a variety of other valuable forest trees, 
growing to the height of 50 feet, may be mentioned the 
iron-wood tree, so called from its hard and heavy wood; Iron 
which is used for clubs, windmills, and similar pur- ‘tee- 
poses ; the bullet-tree, which has a dark coloured wood, Bullet tre 
spotted with small white specks, very durable, and so ; 
weighty as to sink in salt water ; the launa tree, which {una tr 
bears a fruit like an apple, yielding a purple coloured i 
juice, employed by the Indians in painting their bodies 5. y 
the mahogany tree, resembling the cedar, and prefer- 
ring a rocky soil ; the tonquin bean tree, which ‘bears Tonquin 
the sweet-smelling pulse of that name, and some of bean 
which sometimes grow to the height of 70 or 80 feet ; 
the cassia fistula, covered witha light brown bark, and Cassia fi 
bearing pods 18 inches long, containing a sweet pulp la 
resembling treacle. Of a smaller size are the bourracou- 
ra, or letter wood tree, which contains a heart of a deep Letter y 
red colour, marked with black pote hard, ponderous, tree. 
capable of the finest polish, and highly valued for its ’ 
beauty ; the hiarree tree, which grows near rivers, and Hiarree, 
generally at a distance from other trees, esteemed a 
strong poison, even the smoke of the wood when burn- ' 
ing proving fatal to animal life ; the cocoa tree, which 4 
bears a eg of the size and shape of a melon, contain- 
ing rows of nuts in its longitudinal cavities. 
The most valuable fruit trees are the guava, which Fruit tr 
bears a round fruit of a light yellow colour, the internal guava, 
part of which is a red pulp Ss ecy made into jellies, 
and the external part resembling the substance of an 
apple, employed in tarts, &c.; the tamarind tree, which Ta 
grows to a considerable size, and produces its fruit in a 
large pod ; the aviato or avogato pear tree, resembling a 
walnut tree, and bearing a delicious fruit like a large pear 
of a pale green colour, and yellow pulp, similar in taste 
and flavour to the finest peach ; the female poppau, 
which produces an oval-shaped fruit, about six inches 
in length ; plantains, bananas, pine apples, &c. Among gp 
the useful shrubs, we can only particularize the cotton 
bush, which produces two crops annually ; the coffee 
bush, which also bears two crops, each tree yieldin 
about a pound and a half at a crop; the palma christi, Castor by 
or castor bush, which bears nuts of a triangular form, 
covered with a thin brown fur, the kernels of which 
yield by expression the well known castor oil; the 
cassava shrub, of which the roots are ground into meal, 
and formed into an excellent. bread; but the bitter 
cassava, though it becomes a wholesome food when 
boiled or baked, is in its raw state a fatal poison. Of 
many curious plants may be mentioned the aloe, of 
which there are ve.ious kinds ; the caruna shrub, bear- 
mi 
