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Among these is the Ursus Americanus, of the black race; a fox; a stag, which perhaps does not differ from the Cervus virginianus, and the common beaver, which feeds on the large leaves of a Pothos, said by the inhabitants to be injurious to man. Besides these are observed a small Vespertilio with short ears, a Mustela, and a Phoca.
Amongst them were species of Marantaceae, some of which had broad glossy leaves, with long leaf-stalks radiating from joints in a reed-like stem. The trunks of the trees were clothed with climbing ferns, and Pothos plants with large, fleshy, heart-shaped leaves. Bamboos and other tall grass and reed-like plants arched over the pathway.
Our guides advised us to fill our hats with the leaves of the rhopala, to diminish the action of the solar rays on the hair and the crown of the head. We found relief from this expedient, which was particularly agreeable, when we could procure the thick leaves of the pothos or some other similar plant.
Plants of the family of Pothos with succulent stems, Oxalises, and Orchideae of a singular construction, rise in the driest clefts of the rocks; while creeping plants waving in the winds are interwoven in festoons before the opening of the cavern.
There, on the river-side, you may admire the gigantic pepper-trees, or the silvery leaves of the Calathea, the lofty bamboo, or the fragrant Pothos, the curious Cyclanthus, or frowning nettles, some of the latter from ten to twelve feet high. But how to describe the numberless treasures which everywhere strike the eye of the wandering naturalist?
Then, having used the Greek word pothos, he checks himself as though dreading a frown from Varius, and substitutes the Latin word puer, Scilicet hoc fraude, Vari dulcissime, dicam: "Dispeream, nisi me perdidit iste pothos." Sin autem praecepta vetant me dicere, sane Non dicam, sed: "me perdidit iste puer."
The tree trunks were hidden by climbing ferns and by a white variegated fleshy-leafed pothos. Orchids, though not numerous, were by no means scarce on the branches of some of the larger trees, and were intermixed with many curious and beautiful ferns. There were many large-leafed tropical plants somewhat resembling the heliconias and marantas of tropical America.
That of South America Alexis had carefully observed and studied in their long journey across that continent. He had noted the grand tropical trees the palms and pothos plants the mimosas and musaceae the magnificent forms of the lombax and bertholletia the curious cecropias and fig-trees the giant cedrelas and the gum-yielding siphonias.
One allied to the gourd bears immense yellowish-white pendulous blossoms; another bears curious pitcher-shaped flowers. Vines, peppers, and pothos interlace with the palms and plantains in impenetrable jungle. Orchids clothe the trees. Everywhere and always we hear the whirr and hum of insect life, sometimes soft and soothing, sometimes harsh and strident.
Some of the trunks, especially those of palms, close beneath their crowns, were clothed with a thick mass of glossy shield-shaped Pothos plants, mingled with ferns. Arrived at this part we were, in fact, in the heart of the virgin forest. We heard no noises of animals in the trees, and saw only one bird, the sky-blue chatterer, sitting alone on a high branch.
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