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Show ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 365 the half-carbonized bark. When children eat the fruit of the Pirigara speciosa (the Chupo), their whole body becomes tinged with yellow; it is a jaundice, which lasts from 24 to 36 hours, and then disappears without the use of medicine. I have never forgotten the impression which I received of the luxuriant power of vegetation in the tropical world, when, on entering a Cacao plantation (Caca hual), in the Valles de Aragua, after a damp night, I saw for the first time large blossoms springing from a root of the Theobroma deeply imbedded in black earth. It was one of the most instantaneous manifestations of the activity of the vegetative organic forces. Northern nations speak of the "awakening of Nature at the first breath of the mild air of spring." Such an expression is singularly contrasted with the ima§ination of the Stagyrite, who recognised in plants forms which "lie buried in a tranquil slumber that knows no waking, free from the desires which impel to spontaneous motion." (Aristot. de generat. Animal., v. i. p. 778, and de somno et vigil., cap. 1, p. 455, Bekker.) (36) p. 245.-" Draw over their heads." The flowers of our Aristolochia cordata, to which I have already referred in Note 25. The largest flowers in the world, apart from Compositre (in the Mexican Helianthus annuus), belong to Raffiesia arnoldi, Aristolochia, Datura, Barringtonia, Gustavia, Carolinea, Lecythis, Nymphrea, Nelumbium, Victoria regina, Magnolia, Cactus, and to Orchideous and Liliaceous plants. (37) p. 246.-" To behold all tl~e $hining worlds which stud the heavenly vault from pole to pole." The finest portion of the southern celestial hemisphere, where shine the constellations of the Centaur, the Ship, and the Southern Cross, and where the soft lustre of the Magellanic clouds is seen, remains for ever concealed from the view of the inhabitants of Europe. It is only beneath the equinoctial line that Man enjoys the peculiar privilege of beholding at once all the stars both of the southern and the northern heavens. Some of our northern constellations seen from thence appear from their low altitude of a surprising and 31* |