116 



terminates at one of the small ports on the 

 coast. 



Upon quitting* the village of Turmero, we 

 discover, at a league distant, an object, which 

 appears at the horizon like a round hillock, or 

 tumulus, covered with vegetation. It is neither 

 a hill, nor a group of trees close to each other, 

 but one single tree, the famous zamang del 

 Guayre, known throughout the province for the 

 enormous extent of it's branches, which form a 

 hemispheric head five hundred and seventy-six 

 feet in circumference. The zamang is a fine 

 species of mimosa, the tortuous branches of 

 which are divided by bifurcation. It's deli- 

 cate and tender foliage displayed itself agree-, 

 ably on the azure of the sky. We stopped 

 a long time under this vegetable roof. The 

 trunk of the zamang del Guayre *, which is 

 found on the road from Turmero to Maracay, 

 is only sixty feet high, and nine thick ; but it's 

 real beauty consists in the form of it's head. 

 The branches extend like an immense umbrella^ 

 and bend toward the ground, from which they 

 remain at a uniform distance of twelve or fif- 



* The mimosa of la Guayre, for zamang is the Indian name 

 for the genera mimosa, desmanthus, and acacia. The place 

 where the tree is found is called el Guayre. The mimosa 

 (inga) saman of Jacquin (Fragm. hot., p. 5, tab. ix), culti- 

 vated in the fine hot-houses of Schoenbrun, is not of the same 

 species as the colossal tree of Turmero. 



