560 Mr. Schomburgk's Account of the Curata, 



The inflorescence is terminal and forms ramose spikes with a flexuose 

 rachis ; the locustte or spikelets are siibsessile, lanceolate, loose, from one and 

 a half to two inches in length, and their pedicel is short and compressed*. 



The whole stem is from fifty to sixty feet high ; but the weight of the 

 numerous branchlets forces the slender stem to droop, and the npper ])art 

 generally describes an arch, which adds greatly to its graceful appearance. It 

 resembles in its general appearance, if we do not regard the first nodeless joint, 

 Humboldt's Bumbiisa latifolht, which he found in flower on the banks of the 

 Cassiquiare. I was several times deceived, when descending the Rio Negro, 

 into mistaking at a distance the B. latifoUa for the Curata. 



I estimated the height on which we found the Curata, — by which native 

 name I shall distinguish it, — at about 6000 feet above the level of the sea. I 

 have already observed, that the soil where it grew was very rich, the situation 

 was shady, and the atmosphere humid. Its luxuriant growth in dense tufts 

 did not allow any other plant to shoot up under it. Its distribution is very 

 limited, and appears to be restricted to that chain of sandstone mountains 

 which extends between the second and fourth parallel, and forms the separa- 

 tion of waters between the rivers Parima, Rlerewari, Ventuari, Orinoco and 

 Negro. Indeed I succeeded only in ascertaining with certainty three locali- 

 ties, Mounts Mashiatti, Marawacca, and Wanaya. 



It is a remarkable circumstance, that the plant which furnishes the chief 

 ingredient for the preparation of the Urari poison is likewise peculiar to a few 

 mountainous tracts ; consequently the tribes who inhabit the regions where 

 these plants grow, and who are acquainted with the mode of their preparation, 

 acquire a general importance. 



In pointing out the great differences between the tropical and extra-tropical 

 Grasses, Schouw has noticed the nnicli greater height which the former acquire, 

 occasionally assuming the appearance of trees. Some of the most distinguished 



* The .scarcity of flowering spikelets was the reason that I e.xamined only two on the spot, both of 

 which were only one-ttowered ; the floret was hermaphrodite, and on that side of the spikelet which 

 was furthest from the rachis. Of the few dried specimens which I have brought with me, one has 

 been t;ivcn to Mr. Bennett, who has promised to add a notice of its characters to this paper. It would 

 be therefore superfluous to enter here into a detailed description of its sexual parts : I observe only 

 that the anthers are of a greenish yellow, and the filaments yellow. 



