with stems no thicker than a finger. These latter (different
kinds of Bactris) bore small bunches of fruit, red or black,
often containing a sweet, grape-like juice.

Further on, the ground became more swampy and we had some
difficulty in picking our way. The wild banana (Urania Amazonica)
here began to appear, and, as it grew in masses, imparted a new
aspect to the scene. The leaves of this beautiful plant are like
broad-sword blades, eight feet in length and a foot broad; they
rise straight upwards, alternately, from the top of a stem five
or six feet high. Numerous kinds of plants with leaves similar in
shape to these but smaller clothed the ground. 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. The appearance of this part of the forest was strange in
the extreme; description can convey no adequate idea of it. The
reader who has visited Kew may form some notion by conceiving a
vegetation like that in the great palm-house, spread over a large
tract of swampy ground, but he must fancy it mingled with large
exogenous trees similar to our oaks and elms covered with
creepers and parasites, and figure to himself the ground
encumbered with fallen and rotting trunks, branches, and leaves;
the whole illuminated by a glowing vertical sun, and reeking with
moisture.

At length we emerged from the forest, on the banks of the Una,
near its mouth. It was here about one hundred yards wide. The