45 



soil, loaded with arums, heliconias, and lianas, 

 manifests at every step the wild fecundity of 

 nature. Every where just rising above the 

 earth appear those shelves of granite completely 

 bare, that I described at Carichana, and which 

 I have seen no where in the ancient world of 

 such prodigious breadth as in the valley of 

 the Oroonoko. Where springs gush from the 

 bosom of these rocks, verrucarias, psoras, and 

 lichens are fixed on the decomposed granite, 

 and have there accumulated mould. Little eu- 

 phorbias, peperomias,and other succulent plants, 

 have taken the place of the cryptogamous tribes; 

 and evergreen shrubs, rhexias, and purple flow- 

 ered melastomas, form verdant isles amid desert 

 and rocky plains. We are never wearied of 

 repeating, that the distribution of these spots, 

 the clusters of small trees with coriaceous and 

 shining leaves scattered in the savannahs, the 

 limpid rills that dig themselves a channel across 

 the rocks, and wind alternately through fertile 

 places and over bare shelves of granite, every 

 thing here recalls to mind what our gardens 

 and plantations contain most picturesque and 

 lovely. We seem to recognize the industry of 

 man, and the traces of cultivation, amid the 

 wildness of the scenery. 



But it is not the disposition of the ground 

 that immediately skirts the mission of Atures, 

 which alone gives the landscape so remarkable 



