252 
DR. SCHOMBURGK’S RESEARCHES IN GUIANA. 
done honour to the banks of the Essequibo. The Heliconia* ( Bihai ), with its 
large green leaves, and the leafless Jacaranda,f covered with numerous blossoms 
of the finest blue, relieved in a great measure the former monotony of the vegeta¬ 
tion. We now approached the mountain range of Sierra Conocon, through which 
|he river Rupunoony has forced itself a passage. They are all Granite, well 
covered with wood, and inhabited by a numerous tribe of Indians called Warpe- 
shanas or Mapeshanas. We observed on the banks of the river two species of 
Palms we had not before seen; the one, small and graceful, grows in groups, and 
is called u Maraniara the other, slender, often fifty feet high, and has only a 
few leaves of a light blue colour. They had neither flowers nor fruit. 
The river had become so very shallow that the party was obliged to leave the 
large corials and set out with only one small one and four Indians, together with 
the most indispensable articles, leaving the others at an encampment which they 
made at the mouth of a small streamlet called Arripai. They accordingly started 
on the 15th of December, but in a short time were obliged to discontinue their 
progress by water. They therefore landed, and had the corial drawn up, and 
unloaded. Since leaving Annay they had had no reason to complain of the 
Mosquitoes, there being few or none at their night quarters ; but in lieu of them 
they had from sun-rise to sun-set to endure the painful bites of a small Fly 
which were in thousands on the river. Wherever they alighted, either on the 
face or hands, they drew blood, and a spot remained for weeks. The poor Indians, 
uncovered as they were, presented a pitiful appearance in consequence of the 
stings and swellings which followed them. The Caribees call the insect“ Mapire!'’ 
Next morning we wandered over the savannahs (which as we left the mountains 
approached the Eastern bank of the river), and went to a small settlement of 
request among the Indians, for making their largest canoes. Its roots spread along on the sur¬ 
face of the ground from 10 to 15 feet; the trunk is covered with a thick Ash-coloured bark, set 
with short sharp prickles. The blossom/which appears only once in three years, and consists of a 
green calyx with five white folliculi, and the petals, with five stamina, is succeeded by a bud con¬ 
taining a fine silky cotton, of a light grey colour.— Mart. Brit. Colonies , Yol. II. —H. B. 
* The Heliconia of Linnaeus is a genus of large-leaved herbs which are natives of South America, 
belonging to the class and order Pentandria Monogynia , and natural order Musacece, Generic 
characters:—flowers included in coloured spathas; partial flowers in bundles; corolla six cleft; 
the exterior clefts two-lipped and revolute ; the inner convolute; stamens inserted into the base 
of the corolla; ordinary number six, but parts of them often abortive; filaments oval-shaped, 
and erect; anthers linear; style three-sided; stigma obtuse; capsule oblong, three-sided, three- 
celled, and full of seeds.—H. B. 
+ The Jacaranda of Jussieu is a genus of tropical plants belonging to the natural order Bignoni- 
aeece. Generic characters:—Calyx] bell-shaped, five-toothed; corolla funnel-shaped, limb five- 
cleft, spreading; stamens, anthers two-celled; rudiments of five filaments; style with a two 
parted stigma; capsule roundish, compressed, woody, and two celled; seeds in a double series, 
with membranous wings. The full-sized tree forms a beautiful kind of rose-wood.—H. B. 
