Rocky Mountains. 145 



inent our sufferings, by increasing the irritation it was meant 

 to allay.* 



It is not on men alone that these blood-thirsty insects fas- 

 ten themselves. Horses, dogs, and many wild animals are 

 subject to the attacks of a tick that sometimes attains a very 

 large size. It is nevertheless sufficiently evident, that like 

 mosquitoes and other blood-sucking insects, by far the 

 greater number of wood-licks must spend their lives with- 

 out ever establishing themselves as parasites on any animal, 

 and even without a single opportunity of gratifying that 

 thirst for blood, which, as they can exist and perform all the 

 common functions of their life without its agency, would 

 seem to have been given them merelv for the annoyance of 

 every animal that may fall in their way. 



Among noany other plants common to the low and fertile 

 parts of the United States, we observed the acalypha and the 

 splendid lobelia cardinalis^ also the cardiospermum helica- 

 cabum^ sometimes cultivated in the gardens, and said to be a 

 native of the East Indies. It is a delicate climbing vine, con- 

 spicuous by its large inflated capsules. The acacia, [ro- 

 binea pseudacacia] the honey locust, and the Ohio sesculus 

 are among the forest trees, but are confined to the low 

 grounds. The common black haw [viburnum lentago~\ the per- 

 simmon or date plum, and a vitis unknown to us, occurred fre- 

 quently and were all loaded with unripe fruit. The mis- 

 seltoe, whose range of elevation and latitude seems to cor- 

 respond very nearly with that of the miegia and the cypress, 

 occurs here, parasitic on the branches of elms. In the sandy 

 soils of the hills, the formidable jatropha stimulosa is some- 



* In those parts of South America where the absence of crocodiles per- 

 mits people to enter the river, Humboldt and Bonpland observed, that the 

 immoderate use of baths, while it moderated the pain of the old stings 

 of Zancudoes, rendered them more sensible to new. By bathing more than 

 twice a day the skin is brought into a state of nervous it ritability of which 

 no idea .jan be formed in Europe. It would seem as if all feeling were car- 

 ried towards the integuments. 



See HumboldCs Personal Jfarrative, p. 105. vol. 5. 



VOL. II. 19 



