256 
HJXUKIANCE OF VEGETATION. 
ing in the air, and continuing their migration ~x wards the 
mouths of the Orinoco. 
The fine vegetation of the mountains spreads over the 
plains, wherever the rock is covered with mould. We 
generally find that this black mould, mixed with fibrous 
vegetable matter, is separated from the granitic rock by a 
layer of white sand. The missionary assured us that verdure 
of perpetual freshness prevails in the vicinity of the cataracts, 
produced by the quantity of vapour which the river, broken 
into torrents and cascades for the length of three or four 
thousand toises, diffuses in the air. 
We had not heard thunder more than once or twice a* 
Atures, and the vegetation everywhere displayed that vigorous 
aspect, that brilliancy of colour, seen on the coast only at 
the end of the rainy season. The old trees were decorated 
with beautiful orehideas, # yellow bannisterias, blue-flowered 
bignonias, peperomias, arums, and pothoses. A single trunk 
displays a greater variety of vegetable forms than are con- 
tained within an extensive space of ground in our countries. 
Close to the parasite plants peculiar to very hot climates w'0 
observed, not without surprise, in the centre of the torrid 
zone, and near the level of the sea, mosses resembling in 
every respect those of Europe. We gathered, near the Great 
Cataract of Atures, that fine specimen of Grimmiaf with 
fontinalis leaves, which has so much fixed the attention ot 
botanists. It is suspended to the branches of the loftiest 
trees. Of the phanerogamous plants, those which prevail 
in the woody spots are the mimosa, ficus, and laurinea- 
This fact is the more characteristic as, according to the 
observations of Mr. Brown, the laurinea; appear to he almost 
entirely wanting on the opposite continent, in the equinoctial 
part of Africa. Plants that love humidity adorn the scenery 
surrounding the cataracts. We there find'i n the plains group 9 
of helieonias and other scitaminece with large and "glossy 
leaves, bamboos, and the three palm-trees, the murid 1 ’' > 
* Cymbidium violaceum, llabenaria angustifolia, &c. 
+ Grimmia fontinaloides. See Hooker’s Musci Exotici, 1813, tab. '*• 
The learned author of the Monography of the Jungermannite (Mr. Jackso" 
Hooker), with noble disinterestedness, published at his own expense, 
London, the whole collection of eryptogamous plants, brought by Bonpl® n ® 
and Humboldt from the equinoctial regions of America. 
