318 
1 HE CINNAMON OF THE ORINOCO. 
of small rocks rise from the plain. These form massy 
prisms, ruined pillars, and solitary towers fifteen or twenty 
feet high. Some are shaded by the trees of the forest, 
others have their summits crowned with palms. These 
rocks are of granite passing into gneiss. At the confluence 
ot the Vichada the rocks of granite, and what is still more 
remarkable, the soil itself, are covered with moss and lichens. 
These latter resemble the Cladonia pyxidata and the Lichen 
rangiferinus, so common in the north of Europe. We could 
scarcely persuade ourselves that we were elevated less than one 
hundred -toises above the level of the sea, in the fifth degree 
of latitude, in the centre of the torrid zone, which has so 
long been thought to be destitute of eryptogamous plants. 
The mean temperature of this shady and humid spot pro- 
bably exceeds twenty-six degrees of the centigrade thermo- 
meter. Reflecting on the small quantity of rain which had 
hitherto fallen, we were surprised at the beautiful verdure 
of the forests. This peculiarity characterises the valley 
of the Upper Orinoco ; on the coast of Caracas, and in the 
Llanos, the trees in winter (in the season called summer in 
South America, north of the equator) are stripped of their 
leaves, and the ground is covered only with yellow and 
withered grass. Between the solitary rocks just described 
arise some high plants of columnar cactus (Cactus septem- 
angularis), a very rare appearance south of the cataracts of 
Atures and Maypures. 
Amid this picturesque scene M. Bonpland was fortunate 
enough to find several specimens of Laurus eiunainomoides, 
a very aromatic species of cinnamon, known at the Orinoco 
by the names of varimacu and of canelilla.* This valuable 
production is found also in the valley of the Bio Caura, as well 
as near Esmeralda, and eastward of the Great Cataracts. 
The Jesuit Erancisco de Olmo appears to have been the 
first who discovered the canelilla , which he did in the 
country of the Piaroas, near the sources of the Cataniapo- 
The missionary Grili, who did not advance so far as the 
regions I am now describing, seems to confound the vari- 
macu, or guarimacu, with the myristiea, or nutmeg-tree of 
America. These barks and aromatic fruits, the cinnamon, 
the nutmeg, the Myrtus pimenta, and the Laurus pucheri, 
The diminutive of the Spanish word canela, which signifies cinnamon. 
