420 
REGION OP BAMBOOS. 
quiare. The water at the surface of the river was only 24” 
(when the air was at 25’6°). This is nearly the tempera- 
ture of the Bio Negro, but four or five degrees below that 
of the Orinoco. After having passed on the west the mouth 
of the Cano Caterico, which has black waters of extraordi- 
nary transparency, we left the bed of the river, to land at 
an "island on which the mission of Yasiva is established. 
The lake which surrounds this mission is a league broad, and 
communicates by three outlets with the Cassiquiare. The 
surrounding country abounds in marsheB which generate 
fever. The lake, the waters of which appear yellow by 
transmitted light, is dry in the season of great heat, and the 
Indians themselves are unable to resist the miasmata rising 
from the mud. The complete absence of wind contributes 
to render the climate of this country more pernicious. 
From the 14th to the 21st of May we slept constantly in 
the open air; but I cannot indicate the spots where we 
halted. These regions are so wild, and so little frequented, 
that with the exception of a few rivers, the Indians were 
ignorant of the names of all the objects which I set by the 
compass. No observation of a star helped me to fix the 
latitude within the space of a degree. After having passed 
the point where the Itinivini separates from the Cassiquiare, 
to take its course to the west towards the granitic hills 
of Daripabo, we found the marshy banks of the river 
covered with bamboos. These arborescent gramina rise to 
the height of twenty feet ; their stem is constantly arched 
towards the summit. It is a new species of Bambusa with 
very broad leaves. M. Bonpland fortunately found one in 
flower ; a circumstance I mention, because the genera Nastus 
and Bambusa had before been very imperfectly distinguished, 
and nothing is more rare in the New World, than to see these 
gigantic gramina in flower. M. Mutis herborised during 
twenty years in a country where the Bambusa guadua forms 
marshy forests several leagues broad, without having ever 
been able to procure the flowers. We sent that learned 
naturalist the first ears of Bambusa from the temperate val- 
ues of Popayan. It is strange that the parts of fructification 
should develope themselves so rarely in a plant which is 
indigenous, and which vegetates with such extraordinary 
vigour, from the level of the sea to the height of nine hundred 
