122 TRAVELS ON THE RIO NEGRO. \May, 



them. Presently we came out into the sunshine, in a grassy 

 lake filled with lilies and beautiful water-plants, little yellow 

 bladder-worts {Utricularia), and the bright-blue flowers and 

 curious leaves with swollen stalks of the Pontederias, Again 

 in the gloom of the forest, among the lofty cylindrical trunks 

 rising like columns out of the deep water : now a splashing of 

 falling fruit around us would announce that birds were feeding 

 overhead, and we could discover a flock of paroquets, or some 

 bright-blue chatterers, or the lovely pompadour, with its delicate 

 white wings and claret-coloured plumage ; now with a whirr a 

 trogon would seize a fruit on the wing, or some clumsy toucan 

 make the branches shake as he alighted. 



But what lovely yellow flower is that suspended in the air 

 between two trunks, yet far from either ? It shines in the 

 gloom as if its petals were of gold. Now we pass close by it, 

 and see its stalk, like a slender wire a yard and a half long, 

 springing from a cluster of thick leaves on the bark of a tree. 

 It is an Oncidium, one of the lovely orchis tribe, making these 

 gloomy shades gay with its airy and brilliant flowers. Presently 

 there are more of them, and then others appear, with white and 

 spotted and purple blossoms, some growing on rotten logs 

 floating in the water, but most on moss and decaying bark just 

 above it. There is one magnificent species, four inches across, 

 called by the natives St. Ann's flower (Flor de Santa Anna), of 

 a brilliant purple colour, and emitting a most delightful odour ; 

 it is a new species, and the most magnificent flower of its kind 

 in these regions; even the natives will sometimes deign to 

 admire it, and to wonder how such a beautiful flower grows 

 " atda " (uselessly) in the Gapo. 



At length, after about eight hours' paddling, we came out 

 again into the broad waters of the Solimoes. How bright 

 shone the sun ! how gay flowed the stream ! how pleasant it 

 was again to see the floating grass islands, and the huge logs 

 and trees, with their cargoes of gulls sitting gravely upon them ! 

 These, with the white-leaved and straggling umboobas {Cecro- 

 pid)^ give an aspect to the Amazon quite distinct from that of 

 the Rio Negro, independently of their diff'erently-coloured 

 waters. Now, however, there was no land to be reached, and 

 we feared we should have to sup on farinha and water, but 

 luckily found a huge floating trunk fast moored amongst some 

 grass near the side, and on it, with the assistance of a few 



