72 
l^ISi5I0^■S OP CAEI. 
f 1“/*® chemical properties birdlime, the 
vegetable pnnciple obtained from the berries of the mistletoe, 
and the mtemaf bark of the holly. An astonishing ahnn- 
dance of feis glutmous matter issues from the twinino- 
j ® the de guayca when they are cut. Thus* 
we hnd within the tropics a substance in a state of purity’ 
and deposited in peculiar organs, which in the temperate 
zone can be procured only by artificial means. 
We did not amve untU the third day at the Caribbee 
that the ground was less 
craved by the fought in this country than in the Llanos 
ot O^ahozo. Some showers had revived the vegetation. 
SmaU gramma, and especially those herbaceous sensitive- 
plants so useful in fattenmg half-wild cattle, formed a thick 
tun At ^eat ^stances one from another, there arose a 
tew fan-palms (Coiypha tectorum), rhopalas* (ehapari-o), 
and malpigliuist 'with coriaceous and glossy leavesi The 
humid spots are recognized at a distance by groups of mau- 
ritia which are the sago-trees of those countries. Near the 
wast this palm-tree constitutes the whole wealth of the 
(luaraon Indians ; and it is somewhat remarkable that we 
also found It one hundred and sixty leagues farther south, 
m the imdst of the forests of the Upper Orinoco, in the 
savannahs that sun-ound the granitic peak of Duida.t It 
was loaded a,t this season with enormous clusters of red 
V ’i’ fir-cones. Our monkeys were extremely 
tond of this fruit, which has the taste of an over-ripe apple. 
fhA oil tfie backs of 
the m^es, and they inade great efibrts to reach the clusters 
frnl undulating 
from the efiects ot the mirage ; and when, after travelling 
fOT an hour, we reached the trunks of the palm-trees, 
hich appeared hke masts in the horizon, we observed with 
Wrfo!fnd'thp*I?l ‘"l® exclusively southern 
cocoUobaifolia, B. laurifolia, near 
S»g“» Rumphii, is a palm-tree of the marshes. 
cucollt-aTd'the lodo^ef 
