73 



Surinam, and in the West India islands, and 

 already the produce of America amounts to 

 fifteen millions of piastres, reckoning the quintal 

 of coffee at fourteen piastres only. 



On the eighth of February we set out at 

 sunrise, to cross Higuerota, a group of lofty 

 mountains, which separate the two longitudinal 

 valleys of Caraccas and Aragua. After having 

 passed, near Las Ajuntas, the junction of the 

 two small rivers San Pedro and Macarao, which 

 form the Rio Guayra, we ascended a steep hill 

 to the table-land of La Buenavista, where we 

 saw a few lone houses. The view extends on 

 the North-West to the city of Caraccas, and on 

 the South to the village of Los Teques. The 

 country has a savage aspect, and is thickly 

 wooded. We had gradually lost the plants of 

 the valley of Caraccas *. We were eight hun- 



* The Flora of Caraccas is characterized chiefly by the 

 following plants, which grow between the heights of four 

 hundred and six hundred toises. Apura martinicensis, 

 panicum mieranthum, parthenium hysterophorus, vernonia 

 odoratissima (pevetera, the flowers of which have a delicious 

 smell of heliotropium), tagetes caracasana, t. scoparia of La- 

 gasca (introduced by Mr. Bonpland into the gardens of Spain), 

 croton hispidus, smilax scabriusculus, limnocharis humboldti 

 Rich., equisetum ramosissimum, heteranthera alismoides, gly- 

 cine punctata, hyptis Plumeri, pavonia cancellata Cav., sper- 

 macoce rigida, crotalaria acutifolia, polygala ncmorosa, stachy- 

 tarpheta mutabilis, cardiospermum ulrnaceum, amaranthus 

 caracasanus f elephantopus strigosus, hydrolea mollis, alter- 



