[J] "In the season of inundations, these clumps of the _Mauritia_, with their leaves in the form of a fan, have the appearance of a forest rising from the bosom of the waters. The navigator in proceeding along the channel of the delta of the Oronooco at night, sees with surprize the summits of the palm-trees illuminated by large fires. These are the habitations of the Guaraons (see Sir W. Raleigh's Brevis Descript. Guianae, 1594, tab. 4), which are suspended from the trunks of trees. These tribes hang up mats in the air, which they fill with earth, and kindle on a layer of moist clay the fire necessary for their household wants. They have owed their liberty and their political independence for ages, to the quaking and swampy soil which they pass over in the time of drought, and on which they alone know how to walk in security to their solitude in the delta of the Oronooco, to their abodes on the trees, where religious enthusiasm will probably never lead any American Stylites (_see_ Mosheim's Church History). This tree, the tree of life of the missionaries, not only affords the Guaraons a safe dwelling during the risings of the Oronooco, but its shelly fruit, its farinaceous pith, its juice, abounding in saccharine matter, and the fibres of its leaves, furnish them with food, wine, and thread proper for making cords and weaving hammocks. It is curious to observe in the lowest degree of human civilization, the existence of a whole tribe depending on one single species of palm-tree, similar to those insects which feed on one and the same flower, or on one and the same part of a plant."--_Humboldt, Person. Narrative_, vol. v. p. 728. [K] Davy's Agricultural Chemistry, p. 133.--According to Mr. Knight the best potatoes, such as the Irish apple, possess much greater specific gravity than the inferior sorts, and this variety yields nearly 20 per cent. of starch; while five pounds of the variety called Captain Hart, yields 12 ounces of starch, and the Moulton White nearly as much, the Purple Red give only 81/2, the Ox Noble 81/4. There is much more profit in cultivating the former than the latter sorts; but even the best kinds degenerate, and new sorts must be procured, as if to stimulate the ingenuity of man, by preventing his enjoying the gifts of God, without constant exertion, and observation of the laws which the Creator has impressed upon his productions. See the Observations of Thomas Andrew Knight, and the experiments now making by Mr. Maund, of Bromsgrove. [L] Duncan. Sacred Philosophy of the Seasons. [M] Carpenter's Physiology. [N] Thomson's Chemistry of Organic Bodies: Vegetables, p. 667. [O] Vere magna et longe pulcherrima sunt etiam illa profundissima sapientia hic exstructa opera tua, O Jehovah! quae non nisi bene armatis nostris oculis patent! Qualia autem erunt denique illa, quae sublato hoc speculo, remota mortalitatis caligine daturus es tuis Te vere sincero Pectore colentibus? Eheu qualia! Hedwig.