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contact rather unpleasantly with a curious climbing plant, the 

 stalk not thicker than fine cord ; it is exceedingly strong, so that 

 it is not easily broken ; all along this stalk are fine-recurved 

 spines which hold on most tremendously, so that one is obliged 

 to disentangle it carefully from one's clothes, otherwise the 

 clothes would go first. The leaves, which are placed every 6 

 inches along the stem, are large, and resemble the convolvulus. 

 I believe it is a palm, probably Desmoncus, figured in Bates. On 

 the trunk of a tree I have picked up an enormous ant, a species 

 of Dinoponera, about i£ inches long. They run with great 

 rapidity. This is the first of them I have seen ; I do not know if 

 they bite, nor do I like to try. [ have procured two more of 

 the long sharp-tailed spiders, and find that these specimens hold 

 the abdomen right off the ground ; indeed one of them carries 

 it almost perpendicular ; these two are only half the size of the 

 former one, they seem to hold the abdomen sharply bent at the 

 spinnerets, which are situated about one fourth of the length 

 from the front of abdomen. When hanging from their thread 

 they often remain horizontal, being nearly equally balanced at 

 the spinnerets, probably thereby more resembling a broken piece 

 of grass. 



