TRAVELS IN 
4O4 
gree of fragrance. It is in high eftimation with the 
inhabitants for the production of wax for candles, 
for which purpofe it anfwers equally well with 
bees-wax, or preferably, as it is harder and more 
lading in burning. 
Early on a fine morning I fet fail up the river, 
took the Eaft channel, and palled along by well 
cultivated plantations on the fertile iQands, in the 
river on my left hand : thefe iflands exhibit every 
ihow of fertility ; the native productions exceed any 
thing I had ever feen, particularly the Reeds or 
Canes (Arundo gigantea) grow to a great height 
and thicknefs. 
Early one morning, pafling along by fome old 
uncultivated fields, a few miles above Taenfa, I 
was (truck with furprize at the appearance of a 
blooming plant, gilded with the richeft golden yel- 
low : ftepping on fhore, I difcovered it to be a new 
fpecies of the Oenothera (Oenothera grandidora, 
caule eredto, ramofo, pilofo, 7, 8 pedali, foliis 
femi-amplexi-caulibus, lanceolatis, ferratodentatis, 
floribus magnis, fulgidis, feffilibus, capfulis cylin- 
dricis, 4 angulis), perhaps the mod pompous and 
brilliant herbaceous plant yet known to exid. It 
is an annual or biennial, ridng ereCt feven or eight 
feet, branching on all ddes from near the earth up- 
wards, the lower branches extendve, and the fuc- 
ceeding gradually fhorter to the top of the plant, 
forming a pyramid in figure $ the leaves are of a 
broad lanceolate diape, dentated or deeply ferrated, 
terminating with a Qender point, and of a deep full 
green colour ; the large expanded dowers, that fo 
ornament this plant, are of a fplendid perfeCt yel- 
low colour; but when they contract again, before 
they drop off, the underfide of the petals next the 
