25 
R. Schomburgk^ Dr, Phil, 
iron oxyde, and cover tlie undulating savanna for miles 
were missing, and the grotesque hills of the termites became 
less. This tract of land lies one hundred feet lower 
than the settlement Pirara, and forms in the rainy season 
the mythical sea Amucu or Parima. The Byrsonima 
verhascifoUa, Dec., was predominant, being scattered over 
the savanna in all directions, and giving, with its silvery 
leaves and yellow flowers, a change to the general monotony 
which certainly had reached its culmination, it being the end 
of the dry season. Cyperacem, such as Cyperus amentaceuSy 
Pudge. ; Isolepis junciformis, Humb. and Bonpl. ; capiUaris, 
Poem, and Bchult. ; Hypolytrum pungens, Yahl. ; Chlorideen 
and Festucacece, which were frequently interspersed with 
Eriocauloneen, covered the surface. A special interest 
attaches to the Paepalanthus capillaceus^ KL, as it appears that 
the Indians, by burning the grass of the savanna, accelerate 
its flowering, for in two or three days after all the leaves 
have been burnt and destroyed, numberless fragrant head- 
shaped flowers appear out of the strong, short, leafless, 
blackened stems, and not before the flowers have entirely 
disappeared, the leaves begin to grow again. In a very few 
cases only I have found plants which had escaped the fire 
had flowers and leaves at the same time. 
One kind of grass, which I never found in flower, covered 
exclusively whole tracts, and became interesting to me 
through its name, called by the Macusis vannah,^^ and the 
tracts where it grows vandai.^’ Should this be the origin 
of the word savanna ? I must leave the decision to 
etymologists. The ground was so cracked by the intense 
heat that it appeared like a network, with rents three or four 
inches wide. 
Our trip w^ould have been monotonous in the highest 
degree had it not been relieved by the Canuku and Paca« 
raima mountain chains, which appeared in the south and 
north. Another mitigation was the numerous blue flowers of 
the Eichhornia a%urea, Knth., Heteranthera limosa, Yahl., and 
the large flocks of ducks, which rose with whistling noise 
from the Lake Yenturu, at the present time, almost without 
water. These ducks. Anas viduata, Lin., and brasiliensis, Gm., 
provided us to a great extent with game for our next meal; 
The plains were also inhabited by the Oaracara eagle, Polyborus 
Cherkvay, Cab., running about on the dried-up morass, and 
small flocks of the Ibis albicoUiSy Yieill. The latter, when 
