57 



the urtica baccifera, and a new species of the 

 genus guettarda *. The ground is very fertile, 

 and might even be easily watered, if trenches 

 were cut from a great number of rivulets, the 

 springs of which never dry up during the whole 

 year. The most valuable production of the 

 district is tobacco ; it is also the only one, that 

 has given some reputation to a town so small, 

 and so ill built. Since the introduction of the 

 faring in 1779, the cultivation of tobacco in 

 the province of Cumana is nearly confined to 

 the valley of Cumanacoa; as in Mexico it is 

 permitted only in the two districts of Orizaba 

 and Cordova. The system of the farm is a mo- 

 nopoly odious to the people. All the tobacco 

 that is gathered must be sold to government ; 

 and to prevent, or rather to diminish fraud, it 

 has been found easiest to concentrate the culti- 

 vation in one point. Guards scour the coun- 

 try, to destroy any plantations without the 

 boundaries of the privileged districts ; and in- 

 form against those inhabitants, who dare smoke 

 segars prepared by their own hands. These 



* These trees are surrounded by galega pilosa, stellaria 

 rotundifolia, segiphila elata of Swartz, sauvagesia erecta, 

 martinia perennis, and a great number of rivinas* We find 

 among the gramineous plants, in the savannah of Cumanacoa, 

 the paspalus lenticularis, panicum adscendens, pennisetum 

 uniflbrum, gynerium saccharoides, eleusine indica, &e. 



i Estanco real de tabaco, royal monopoly of tobacco. 



