They belong to Arumas; {139c} and from their ribs are woven the Indian baskets and packs.

Above these, again, the Balisiers bend their long leaves, eight or ten feet long apiece; and under the shade of the leaves their gay flower-spikes, like double rows of orange and black birds' beaks upside down.

Above them, and among them, rise stiff upright shrubs, with pairs of pointed leaves, a foot long some of them, pale green above, and yellow or fawn- coloured beneath.

You may see, by the three longitudinal nerves in each leaf, that they are Melastomas of different kinds--a sure token they that you are in the Tropics--a probable token that you are in Tropical America.
And over them, and among them, what a strange variety of foliage: look at the contrast between the Balisiers and that branch which has thrust itself among them, which you take for a dark copper-coloured fern, so finely divided are its glossy leaves.

It is really a Mimosa--Bois Mulatre, {139d} as they call it here.