123 



nomena of inorganic nature, present striking 

 analogies, the majesty of equinoxial vegetation 

 gives at the same time an individual character 

 to the aperture of the cavern. 



The Cueva del Guacharois pierced in the ver- 

 tical profile of a rock. The entrance is toward 

 the South, and forms a vault eighty feet broad, 

 and seventy-two feet high. This elevation is 

 but a fifth less than that of the colonnade of 

 the Louvre. The rock, that surmounts the 

 grotto, is covered with trees of gigantic height. 

 The mammee-tree, and the genipa* with large 

 and shining leaves, raise their branches vertical- 

 ly toward the sky ; while those of the courbaril 

 and the erythrina form, as they extend them- 

 selves, a thick vault of verdure. Plants of the 

 family of pothos with succulent stems, oxalises, 

 and orchidese of a singular structure rise in 

 the driest clefts of the rocks ; while creeping 

 plants, waving in the winds, are interwoven in 

 festoons before the opening of the cavern. We 

 distinguished in these festoons a bignonia of a 

 violet blue, the purple dolichos, and for the 

 first time that magnificent solandra^, the 



* Caruto, genipa americana. The flower, at Caripe, has 

 sometimes five, sometimes six stamens. 



t A dendrobium, with a golden flower, spotted with 

 black, three inches long. 



X Solandra scandens. It is the gousaticha of the Chay- 

 ma Indians. 



