99 



do and Guarapiche, both of which, rising in the 

 mountains of the Cocollar, blend their waters 

 lower down toward the East. The Colorado 

 has a very rapid current, and becomes at it's 

 mouth broader than the Rhine. The Guara- 

 piche, united to the Rio Areo, is more than twen- 

 ty-five fathoms deep. It's banks are ornament- 

 ed by a superb gramen, of which I made a 

 drawing two years afterward on ascending the 

 river Magdalena, and the distich-leaved stalk of 

 which often reaches fifteen or twenty feet *. 

 Our mules could scarcely drag themselves on 

 through the thick mud, with which the level 

 and narrow road were covered. The rain fell in 

 torrents, and the whole forest seemed converted 

 into a marsh by the force and frequency of the 

 showers. 



Toward evening we reached the Mission of 

 Guanaguana, the soil of which is almost on a 

 level with the village of San Antonio. We 

 were much in need of drying our clothes. The 

 missionary received us cordially; he was an old 



* Lata or cana brava. It is a new genus, between aira and 

 arundo, that we have described under the name of gynerium 

 (PI. Equin., vol. ii, p. 112). This colossal gramen looks 

 like the donax of Italy. This, the arundinaria of the Missi- 

 sippi, (ludolfia Wild., miegia of Persoon,) and the bamboos, 

 are the highest gramens of the new continent. It's seed has 

 been carried to St. Domingo, and it's stalk employed to 

 thatch the Negroes' huts. 



£7237 - 



