440 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
Alto Orinoco and Casiquiari — no turtles caught 
and no fish salted. ... I left for Vasiva on the 
22nd, and in the evening of the same day took 
up a position within the outlet of the lake, on the 
only piece of land that was not inundated. During 
the four following days, which were dreadfully 
gloomy and rainy, I explored the lake in my 
curiara, and then, seeing that I could do no more 
there, again continued down the Casiquiari. I 
was not content to return to San Carlos without 
adding considerably to my stock of dried plants, 
and my best plan now seemed to be to ex- 
plore the Pacimoni. This I was enabled to 
execute partially. I entered the Pacimoni on 
January 27, and in the space of a month explored 
it to nearly its head-waters, which are in the midst 
of magnificent mountains, the latter uninhabited 
and all but inaccessible, and scarcely known to 
geographers even by name. 
I have not time to write in detail of the plants collected. Those 
from the Pacimoni include the most novelty, but perhaps the 
small collection made at Esmeralda will be looked on with more 
interest by Mr. Bentham and yourself, although I suppose all the 
species have been gathered previously either by Humboldt or 
Schomburgk. The low cerros near Esmeralda — the debris of 
Duida — have a scanty scattered fruticose vegetation, among which 
one of the most prominent plants is a Commianthus, apparently C. 
Schoinburgkii^ Benth., though a smaller form than I gathered nearly 
two years previously on a small sandy campo near the Barra, It 
is so abundant within a quarter of an hour's walk from Esmeralda 
that I can scarcely credit its not being among Humboldt's plants. 
Another shrub or small tree growing along with it in great quan- 
tity is a stunted form of Hiwiirium floribiindum ; the same widely- 
distributed species accompanies the Commianthus near the Barra. 
Equally frequent was a Remijia with densely pilose capsules, 
shorter than usual in the genus ; I was surprised to meet after- 
wards the same species on a small granitic mountain by the 
Pacimoni, especially as none of the plants accompanying it in the 
latter locality were identical with those of Esmeralda. Other 
