Although the forests cover generally the whole length and breadth of the
Amazonian Valley, there are here and there, on the higher ground, open
dry plains with scanty vegetation,--the ground in the water-courses or
gullies, formed of clay, being baked by the heat of the sun into
slate-like masses. One of these spots we now reach. The most prominent
plants of this sandy or clayey region are clusters of cacti and curua
palms--a kind of stemless, low palm, with broad leaves springing,
vase-like, from the ground. Here also grow wild pineapples; and in
broad sunlight numerous humming-birds delight to sport and feed upon the
blossoms of the various plants which find no room to bloom in the darker
shades of the forest.