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reverberation from the white sands, which form 

 a border between the mangroves and the great 

 trees of the forest. As the shore descends with 

 a gentle slope, the small tides are sufficient 

 alternately to cover and uncover the roots, and 

 part of the trunk of the mangroves. It is, no 

 doubt, while the Sun heats the humid wood, 

 and causes the fermentation as it were of the 

 ground, the remains of dead leaves, and the 

 molluscae envelopped in the drift of floating 

 sea-weed, that those deleterious gasses are 

 formed, which escape our researches. We saw 

 the sea-water, along the whole coast, acquire 

 a yellowish brown tint, wherever it comes into 

 contact with the mangrove trees. 



Struck with this phenomenon, I gathered at 

 Higuerota a considerable quantity of branches 

 and roots, in order to make some experiments 

 on the infusion of the mangrove, upon my arri- 

 val at Caraccas. The infusion in warm water 

 had a brown colour, and an astringent taste. 

 It contained a mixture of extractive matter, 

 and tannin. The rhizophora, the mistleto, the 

 cornel-tree, all the plants, which belong to the 

 natural families of the lorantheous and the ea- 

 prifoliaceous plants, have the same properties. 

 The infusion of mangrove wood, kept in contact 

 with atmospheric air under a glass jar for twelve 

 days, did not sensibly affect it's purity. A little 

 blackish flocculent sediment was formed, but 



