So Sa 
168 VALLEY OF THE TUY. 
more than 27 feet high, heliconias, plumerias, brow- 
nee, gigantic figs, palms, and other plants. The. 
brownea, which bears four or five hundred purple 
flowers in a single thyrsus, reaches the height of 
fifty or sixty feet. 
At the base of the wooded mountain of Higuerota 
they entered the small village of San Pedro, situated 
in a basin where several valleys meet. Plantains, 
potatoes, and coffee, were sedulously cultivated. 
The rock was mica-slate, filled with garnets, and 
containing beds of serpentine of a fine green, varied 
with spots of a lighter tint. 
Ascending from the low ground, they passed by 
the farms of Las Lagunetas and Garavatos, near the 
latter of which there is a mica-slate rock of a singu- 
lar form,—that of a ridge, or wall, crowned by a 
tower. The country is mountainous, and almost 
entirely uninhabited ; but beyond this they entered 
a fertile district, covered with hamlets and small 
towns. This beautiful region is the valley of the 
Tuy, where they spent two days at the plantation 
of Don Jose de Manterola, on the bank of the river, 
the water of which was as clear as crystal. Here 
they observed three species of sugar-cane, the old 
Creole, the Otaheitan, and the Batavian, which are 
easily distinguished, and of which the most valuable 
is the Otaheitan, as it not only yields a third more 
of juice than the Creole cane, but furnishes a much 
‘greater quantity of fuel. 
As this valley, like most other parts of the Spa- 
nish colonies, has its gold mine, Humboldt was de- 
sired to visit it. In the ravine leading to it an enor- 
mous tree fixed the attention of the travellers. It 
had grown on a steep declivity above a house, which 
