56 THE ISTHMUS OF PANAMA. 



be made to bear some parasite or creeping vine, 

 that, having climbed to its topmost height, will shoot 

 off branches earthward, that will hang like cords, 

 suspended in mid air, until reaching the ground, to 

 take root. These vines sometimes so encircle a trunk, 

 that it dies, strangled apparently by that which it 

 had supported, and finally, rotting away, it will fall 

 with its burthen, and crumbling to dust, leave a hol- 

 low cylinder of interlacing strans. 



Countless numbers of parasite plants will be seen 

 clinging to the barks, or around the branches and in 

 their angles, bearing most beautiful blossoms ; and 

 thus each tree not only appears in its richest verdure, 

 and perhaps in gorgeous bloom, but decorated with 

 innumerable other specimens of the Great Artist's 

 handiwork, in this grandest of all his exhibitions 

 in the world. 



One of the most peculiar trees of the Isthmus, 

 and one that is often found growing to a great size, 

 is that so strongly sustained in its position by planes, 

 thrown out from twenty feet or more up the trunk, 

 which become rooted in the ground at perhaps an 

 equal distance, thus bracing it on every side against 

 the violence of winds or the gravity of its own great 

 bulk. Two or three varieties of the mahogany tree, 

 and a cedro or cedar, from which the natives 

 usually make their canoes, are among those most 

 commonly seen ; they both grow to a great size, es- 

 pecially the cedro. Large boats, called bungoes, 

 from forty to fifty feet long and of several tuns bur- 

 then, are made from a single tree. They are very 



