So 
Botanical Reminiscences. 
long before everyone but myself was busy in enjoying the 
savory meal ; the vicious fever deprived me of any appetite 
to take a part at the banquet. 
The following morning, the 22nd November, we left this, 
in a geological, but especially in a botanical respect, most 
interesting place. During this short stay I had collected 
more than 100 species of phaneragamen, and eighty- three 
species of ferns, of which the greater number were new, and 
yet we had arrived in the same month in this inexhaustible 
botanical El Dorado, in which my late brother had arrived 
in the year 1838, when he collected a great number of 
new plants ; besides which how many were already out of 
flower, how many just on the point of flowering, I never 
have seen even an approach to such abundance of charming 
plants as appeared here, where one is reall}^^ at a loss whether 
most to admire the endless variety or the beauty of their 
flowers. The most trifling change in the soil, the altitude, 
or the strata, the different degree of humidity of any one, or 
all of these circumstances, causes a corresponding change in 
the vegetation, which in so small a compass may be looked 
for in vain on the almost horizontal territories of the 
Essiquebo, Orinoco, and Amazon. I had only one desire, to 
be able to remain here for a whole year, as I am convinced 
every week, every month, would have opened a large inex- 
haustible rich field for my botanical knowledge. But the 
expedition started, and I was obliged to follow, and had to 
bid farewell to this botanical El Dorado. 
The poor naked Indians, who had sufiered very much from 
the cold atmosphere, were delighted as the command for the 
descent was given, shouldering their packages, and, under 
shouting and singing to their hearts content, our long Indian 
file moved downwards. 
