362 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
By far the most striking object, however, was 
the mountain at my back, and when I stood up and 
turned to view it, it seemed the finest object for a 
painter's pencil I had seen in South America. It 
is impossible to do justice to the scene in words. 
The two peaks stood out in all their distinctness, 
that on the right (east) being slightly higher than 
the other, of an exact sugar-loaf form, quite destitute 
of vegetation save a scrap at the summit, and I 
suppose absolutely impossible to ascend. The 
peak on the left has a broader top, and bears a 
good deal of forest, among which I thought I could 
distinguish two palms, probably Inajas, for my 
Indians found an Inaja palm growing at the highest 
point they attained, and I have previously seen this 
palm ascending to greater heights. 
Effects of Ant Stings 
Journal) 
Aug. 15, 1853. — Yesterday I had the pleasure 
for the first time of experiencing the sting of 
the large black ant called tucandera in Lingoa 
Geral. . . . 
I had gone after breakfast to herborise in the 
caapoera north of San Carlos, where there were a 
good many decayed trunks and stumps. I stooped 
down to cut off a patch of a moss (Fissidens) on a 
stump, and remarked that by so doing I exposed a 
large hollow in the rotten wood ; but when I turned 
me to put the moss into my vasculum I did not 
notice that a string of angry tucanderas poured 
out of the opening I had made. I was speedily 
made aware of it by a prick in the thigh, which I 
