VEGETATIOH OF THE PLAIHS. 
105 
ness that the spots or rings can he distinguished only in the 
sunshine. The number of matacani, or little deer,* is so 
considerable in the Llanos, that a trade might be carried on 
with their skins.t A skilful hunter could easily kill more 
than twenty in a day; but such is the indolence of the 
inhabitants," that often they will not give themselves the 
trouble of taking the skin. 'The same indifference is evinced 
in the ehase of the jaguar, a skin of which fetches only one 
piastre in the steppes of Varinas, while at Cadiz it costs 
four or five. . . 
The steppes that we traversed are principally covered 
with grasses of the genera Killingia, Cenchrus, and Pas- 
palum.J At this season, near Calabozo and San Jerome 
del Pirital, these grasses scarcely attain the height of nine 
or ten inches. Near the banks of the Apure and the Por- 
fuguesa they rise to four feet in height, so that the jaguar 
can conceal himself among them, to spring upon the mules 
and horses that cross the plain. Mingled with these gra- 
niina some plants of the dicotyledonous class are found ; as 
turneras, malvacete, and, what is very remarkable, little 
ndmosas with irritable leaves, || called by the Spaniards 
'iormideras. The same breed of cows, which fatten in 
Europe on sainfoin and clover, liud excellent nourishment 
*n the herbaceous sensitive plants. The pastures where 
these shrubs particularly abound are sold at a higher price 
than others. To the east, in the llanos of Cari and Bar- 
celona, the cypura and the craniolaria,§ the beautiful white 
flower of which is from six to eight inches long, rise soli- 
tarily amid the gramina. The pastures are richest not only 
around the rivers subject to inundations, but also wherever 
the truuks of palm-trees are near each other. The least 
fertile spots are those destitute of trees ; and attempts to 
cultivate them w r ould be nearly fruitless. We cannot attn- 
* They are called in the country ' Venados de tierras calientes ( deer 
°f Me warm lands.} , 
t This trade is earned on, but on a very limited scale, at Carora and 
at Barquesimeto. . 
, + Killingia monoeephala, K. odorata, Cenchrus pilosus, Vdfa tenacis- 
sima, Andropogon plumosum, Panicum micranthum, Poa repens, Paspa- 
lum leptostachyum, P. conjugatum, Aristida recurvata. (Nova Genera 
et Species Plantarum, vol. i, pp. 84-243.) 
II The sensitive-plant (Mimosa dormiens). . 
• Cypura graminea, Craniolaria annua (the scorzonera of the natives, . 
