120 STEPPES AND DESERTS, 



placed on the north-west coast of Africa a river Nuius, in 

 the Latin version Nunii Ostia. Edrisi speaks of a town, 

 Nul, or Wadi Nun, somewhat more to the south, and three 

 days' journey in the interior : Leo Africanus calls it Belad 

 de Non. Long before the Portuguese squadron of Gili- 

 anez, other European navigators had advanced much beyond, 

 or to the southward of, this Cape. The Catalan, Don Jayine 

 Ferrer, in 1346, as we learn from the Atlas Catalan pub- 

 lished by Buchon at Paris, had advanced as far as the Gold 

 River, (Rio do Ouro), in lat. 23 56' ; and Normans, at the 

 end of the 14th century, as f :r as Sierra Leone in lat. 

 8 30'. The merit of having been the first to cross the 

 equator on the western coast of Africa belongs, however, 

 like that of so many other memorable achievements, to the 

 Portuguese. 



( 17 ) p. 8. "As a grassy plain, resembling many 

 of the Steppes of Central Asia" 



The Llanos of Caraccas and of the Eio Apure and the 

 Meta, over which roam large herds of cattle, are, in the 

 strictest sense of the term, " grassy plains." Their preva- 

 lent vegetation, belonging to the two families of Cyperacese 

 and Graminese, consists of various species of Paspalum, 

 P. leptostachyum and P. lenticulare; of Kyllingia, K. 

 monocephala (Rottb.), K. odorata; of Panicum, P. granuli- 

 ferum, P. micranthum; of Antephora; Aristida; Yilfa; 

 and Anthistiria, A. reflexa, and A. foliosa. Only here and 

 there are found, interspersed among the Graminese, a few 

 herbaceous dicotyledonous plants, consisting of two very 

 low-growing species of Mimosa, (Sensitive Plant), Mimosa 



