FLORA OF VENEZUELA. 101 



The trades are also more regular during the winter months from November to 

 March, when the sun is at the zenith of the southern tropical zone. They grow 

 more gentle, or even give place to unstable southern or westerly winds, in the 

 season from April to October, when the sun moves to the north of the equinoctial 

 line. The trades are popularly said to ascend the Orinoco no farther than the' 

 cataracts, and they are prevented by the mountains rising in the east of Guiana 

 from circulating on the low-lying regions between the falls of the Orinoco and 

 those of the Rio Negro. At Maipures the wind is said never to blow, so that the 

 heats are unendurable, while the very skies are darkened by clouds of mosquitoes. 

 Here the phenomenon of sheet lightning unattended by the roll of thunder is 

 very common. 



Flora. 



Nowhere are the marvellous tropical forests, with their tangle of lianas and 

 parasites, intermingled in greater profusion than in the Orinoco delta, around 

 the shores of Lake Maracaibo, and at the foot of the Sierra de Merida. Nor, on 

 the other hand, can a greater variety of herbaceous and other low plants be any- 

 where seen than on the Venezuelan llanos. Although consisting almosc exclu- 

 sively of cereals and of allied families, the vegetation of the llanos is extremely 

 dense. The lower parts have received the name of esteras, or " lagoons," because 

 periodically flooded by the Orinoco or its afiluents, whose deposits serve to feed 

 myriads of young plants. 



In the llanos the most frequently-met trees, usually of small size, and isolated 

 or in small clumps, are the chaparros {curatella), with rough and nauseous foliage, 

 and the copernicia palm, called the palma llanera in a pre-eminent sense, or the 

 palma de cohija (" roof palm"), because its immense leaves, 12, 14, or even 16 feet 

 long, are used for thatching the native cabins. Although forests consisting 

 exclusively of palms are rare, groves of the copernicia occur on the llanos, in 

 which these palms are disposed in natural groups of five to the square (in quin- 

 cunx order), like the pines and spruces in the forests of West Europe, and 

 without any undergrowths or lianas, such as those of other tropical forests. 

 Here and there the ground is also covered with the green and red bushes of the 

 sensitive plant, locally called dormidera, or ** sleeper." 



One of the commonest palms is the mauritia {niauricia jiixuosa), the mitric/ti 

 of the Guaraunos, and the " staff of life " for many native tribes. It not only 

 supplies the peoples of the Orinoco delta with the materials for building and 

 roofing their huts, and with the fibre used for hammocks and cordage, but its 

 fruit, pith, and sap also yield food and drink in various states of fermentation. 



The Venezuelan flora comprises several other remarkable plants, such as the 

 saman, a gigantic mimosa, nearly always solitary, with wide- spreading branches 

 and delicate pink foliage. On the coast ranges occurs the milk-tree [hrosimum. 

 galactodendron) , a member of the bread-fruit family, which, when tapped, yields 

 a milky fluid, nearly of the same consistency and composition as cream. Yet this 

 fluid is not potable, nor is the tree cultivated. The calabash [rrcsccntia cujetc), 



