Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 1 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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Among These Plants, Peculiar To The Fine Region
Of The Arborescent Ferns,* (* Called By The Inhabitants Of The
Country Region De Los Helechos.) Some Palm-Trees Rise In The
Openings, And Some Scattered Groups Of Guarumo, Or Cecropia With
Silvery Leaves.
The trunks of the latter are not very thick, and
are of a black colour towards the summit, as if burnt by the oxygen
of the atmosphere.
We are surprised to find so noble a tree, which
has the port of the theophrasta and the palm-tree, bearing
generally only eight or ten terminal leaves. The ants, which
inhabit the trunk of the guarumo, or jarumo, and destroy its
interior cells, seem to impede its growth. We had already made one
herborization in the temperate mountains of the Higuerote in the
month of December, accompanying the capitan-general, Senor de
Guevara, in an excursion with the intendant of the province to the
Valles de Aragua. M. Bonpland then found in the thickest part of
the forest some plants of aguatire, the wood of which, celebrated
for its fine red colour, will probably one day become an article of
exportation to Europe. It is the Sickingia erythroxylon described
by Bredemeyer and Willdenouw.
Descending the woody mountain of the Higuerote to the south-west,
we reached the small village of San Pedro, situated in a basin
where several valleys meet, and almost three hundred toises lower
than the table-land of Buenavista. Plantain-trees, potatoes,* (*
Solanum tuberosum.) and coffee are cultivated together on this
spot.
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