103 



plains, and examine the springs of petroleum, 

 which lie between the river Guarapiche and the 

 Rio Areo : but the season of rains was already 

 arrived, and we were in daily perplexity to dry 

 and preserve the plants we had collected. The 

 road from Guanaguana to the village of Punze- 

 ra goes either by St. Felix or by Caycara and 

 Guayuta, which is a hato (farm for cattle) of the 

 missionaries. In this last place, according to 

 the report of the Indians, great masses of sul- 

 phur are found, not in a gypseous or calcareous 

 rock, but at a small depth below the soil, in a 

 bed of clay. This singular phenomenon ap- 

 pears to me peculiar to America ; we shall find it 

 again in the kingdom of Quito, and in New 

 Spain. On approaching Punzera, we saw in 

 the savannahs small bags, formed of a tissue of 

 silk, suspended from the branches of the lowest 

 trees. It is the seda silvestre, or wild silk of 

 the country, which is of a beautiful lustre, but 

 very rough to the touch. The phalena which 

 produces it is perhaps analogous with that of 

 the provinces of Guanaxuato and Antioquia 

 which also furnish wild silk *. We found in 

 the beautiful forest of Punzera two trees known 

 by the names of curucay and canela ; the first, 

 of which we shall speak hereafter, yields a resin 

 very much sought after by the Piaches, or In- 



* Nouv. Esp., T. i, p. 453 ; T. iii, p. 668. 



