96 RETun>; to cumaxa. 



CHAP. VIII. (^Vultur aura) perched on the cocoa-trees in large flocka. 

 Hookof Tliese birds go to roost long before night, and do not 

 ruituros. quit their place of repose until after the heat of the solar 

 rays is felt. The same idleness, as it were, is indulged 

 by the trees with pinnate leaves, such as the mimosas 

 and tamarinds, which close these organs half an hour 

 before the sun goes down, and unfold them in the 

 morning only after he has been some time visible. In 

 our climates the leguminous plants open their leaves 

 during the morning twilight. Humboldt seems to think 

 that the liumidity deposited upon the parenchyma by 

 the refrigeration of the foliage, which is the effect of the 

 nocturnal radiation, prevents the action of the first rays 

 of the sun upon them. 



