ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 203 



the visible horizon, and an increased acquaintance with the 

 nobler and grander forms of nature, and with the luxuriant 

 fulness of life in the tropical world, offer the advantage not 

 only of enriching the material substratum of landscape 

 painting, but also of affording a more lively stimulus to less 

 gifted artists, and of thus heightening their powers of 

 production." 



( 35 ) p. 30. "From tlie rough lark of Crescentias 

 and Gmtavia" 



In the Crescentia cujete (the Tutuma or Calabash-tree, 

 whose large fruit-shells are so useful to the natives for 

 household purposes), in the Cynometra, the Theobroma 

 (the Cacao-tree), and the Perigara (the Gustavia of Linnaeus), 

 the delicate flowers break through the half carbo- 

 nized bark. "When children eat the fruit of the Pirigara 

 speciosa (the Chupo), their whole body becomes tinged with 

 yellow ; it is a jaundice, which lasts from 24 to 36 hours, 

 and then disappears without the use of medicine. 



I have never forgotten the impression which I received of 

 the luxuriant power of vegetation in the tropical world, 

 when on entering a Cacao plantation (Caca hual), in the 

 Valles de Aragua, after a damp night, I saw for the first 

 time large blossoms springing from a root of the Theobroma 

 deeply imbedded in black earth. It was one of the most 

 instantaneous manifestations of the activity of the vegetative 

 organic forces. Northern nations speak of the " awakening 

 of Nature at the first breath of the mild air of spring." 

 Such an expression is singularly contrasted with the imagi- 

 nation of the Stagirite, who recognised in plants forms which 



