s, covered nearly everywhere with
dense forests, is intersected at various angles by numbers of
valleys presenting the most lovely character. Generally each valley
is watered by a silvery stream, tumbling here and there over rocks
and natural dams, ministering in a continuous rain to the strange-
looking river-canes, dumb-canes, and balisiers that voluptuously
bend their heads to the drizzly shower which plays incessantly on
their glistening leaves, off which the globules roll in a thousand
pearls, as from the glossy plumage of a stately swan.

'One of these falls deserves particular notice--the Cascade of
Maraccas--in the valley of that name. The high road leads up the
valley a few miles, over hills, and along the windings of the river,
exhibiting the varying scenery of our mountain district in the
fairest style. 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?

'To reach the Chorro, or Cascade, you strike to the right into a
"path" that brings you first to a cacao plantation, through a few
rice or maize fields, and then you enter the shade of the virgin
forest. Thousands of interesting objects now attract your
attention: here, the wonderful Norantea or the resplendent
Calycophyllum, a Tabernaemontana or a Faramea filling the air afar
off with the fragrance of their blossoms; there, a graceful
Heliconia winking at you from out some dark ravine. That shrubbery
above is composed of a species of Boehmeria or Ardisia, and that
scarlet flower belongs to our native Aphelandra. In the rear are
one or two Philodendrons--disagreeable guests, for their smell is
bad enough, and they blister when imprudently touched. There also
you may see a tree-fern, though a small one. Nearer to us, and low
down beneath our feet, that rich panicle of flowers belongs to a
Begonia; and here also is an assemblage of ferns of the genera
Asplenium, Hymenophyllum, and Trichomanes, as well as of Hepaticae
and Mosses. But what are those yellow and purple flowers hanging
above our heads? They are Bignonias and Mucunas--creepers straying
from afar which have selected this spot, where they may, under the
influen