PLATEAU* OF CAXAMA.RCA. 279 



to Europe from Mexico, I received, in Pans, letters from 

 Tomependa, which had been sent in the manner above 

 described. Several tribes of wild Indians, living on the 

 banks of the Upper Amazons, make their journeys in a 

 similar manner, swimming down the stream sociably in 

 parties. I had the opportunity of seeing in this manner, in 

 the bed of the river, the heads of thirty or forty persons 

 (men, women, and children), of the tribe of the Xibaros, on 

 their arrival at Tomependa. The "Correo que nada" 

 returns by land by the difficult route of the Paramo del 

 Paredon. 



On approaching the hot climate of the basin of the 

 Amazons, the eye is cheered by the aspect of a beautiful, 

 and occasionally very luxuriant vegetation. We had never 

 before, not even in the Canaries or on the hot sea coast of 

 Cumana and Caraccas, seen finer orange trees than those of 

 the Huertas de Pucara. They were principally the sweet 

 orange (Citrus aurantiuni, Eisso), and less frequently the 

 bitter or Seville orange (C. vulgaris, Eisso). Laden with 

 many thousands of their golden fruits, they attain a height 

 of sixty or sixty-four English feet ; and, instead of rounded 

 tops or crowns, have aspiring branches, almost like a laurel 

 or bay tree. Not far from thence, near the Ford of Cavico, 

 we were surprised by a very unexpected sight. We saw a 

 grove of small trees, only about eighteen or nineteen English 

 feet high, which, instead of green, had apparently perfectly 

 red or rose-coloured leaves. It was a new species of Bougain- 

 villaea, a genus first established by the elder Jussieu, from a 

 Brazilian specimen in Commerson's herbarium. The trees 

 were almost entirely without true leaves, as what we took 



