140 



the tropics in the low regions of the continents 

 has a peculiar physiognomy, something of great- 

 ness and repose, which it preserves even where 

 one of the elements is struggling with invincible 

 obstacles. Near the equator, hurricanes and 

 tempests belong to islands only, to deserts des- 

 titute of plants, and to those spots, where parts 

 of the atmosphere repose upon surfaces, from 

 which the radiation of heat is very different. 



The mountain of Manimi forms the eastern 

 limit of a plain, which furnishes for the history 

 of vegetation, that is, for it's progressive develop- 

 ment in bare and desert places, the same pheno- 

 mena, which we have described above in speak- 

 ing of the raudal of Atures. During the rainy 

 season, the waters heap vegetable earth upon 

 the granitic rock, the bare shelves of which ex- 

 tend horizontally. These islands of mould, de- 

 corated with the most beautiful* and most 



* The vegetation of Maypures is characterized by the 

 following plants, most of which have already been published 

 by Messrs. Bonpland and Kunth, in the Nova Gen. et Spec. 

 Plantarum. Jacaranda obtusifolia, ancistrocarpus maypuren- 

 sis, nona xyhiopioides y euphorbia tenelta, peperoraia maypu- 

 riensis, pothos angustatus, smilax maypurensis, oplisraenus poly- 

 stachius, poa maypuriensis, eryocaulon umbeliatum, psidium phyl- 

 liroides (the fruit of which is employed by the Indians for 

 refreshing lemonades), Oenothera maypurknm, passiflora auri- 

 culata, solanum platyphyllum, aristolochia nummularijblia, me- 

 lastoma insectifera. The pine-apples, which grow in the 

 savannahs near Atures, have an exquisite flavour. 



