I | 
266 MR. SPENCER LE M. MOORE—PHANEROGAMIC BOTANY 
expedition under Langsdorff, after collecting in Eastern Brazil, crossed the Paraná river, and 
entered Matto Grosso from the south. Riedel travelled up the Rio Pardo to Camapuan, 
and proceeded viá the Taquari, Paraguay, So Lorenzo, and Cuyabá rivers to Cuyabá. 
Unaccompanied by Langsdorff, who selected the Arinos and Tapajos route, he advanced 
to Villa Maria and Matto Grosso city, thence descending the Guaporé and Madeira 
rivers to the Amazon. Then we find Dr. Patricio da Silva Manso, a Cuyabá physician 
who flourished during the earlier half of the century, sending to Lhotsky many plants 
from Cuyabá and the neighbourhood. These plants came into possession of Von Martius, 
and were distributed to various herbaria. Gaudichaud entered Matto Grosso during the 
second of his three voyages, that of the Herminie (1830-33). I have been unable 
to get any information about this voyage, of which no narrative, it would appear, was 
ever written—a singular fact, seeing that the other two journeys were so well and so 
exhaustively described. For this reason, it is impossible to say to which part of the 
province Gaudichaud went. Only a small district of Matto Grosso was visited by 
D'Orbigny, viz. the neighbourhood of the Forte do Principe de Beira on the Guaporé, 
whence he brought home a few plants. Ten years after Gaudichaud, Dr. Weddell began 
those travels which have made his name so famous. Finding himself at Goyaz, Weddell 
moved northward along the Araguaya to its junction with the Tocantins, which river he 
ascended, and, returning to Goyaz, entered Matto Grosso from the east and proceeded 
over the plateau to Cuyabá. Here he turned northward, reached Diamantino, and made 
a short circuit to the Arinos valley and back. Retracing his steps to Cuyabá, Weddell 
went down the Cuyabá, Sao Lorenzo, and Paraguay rivers as far as Olympo; whereupon, 
being refused admission into Paraguay, he turned back, visited Miranda on the Mondego 
river, and ascended the Paraguay as far as Villa Maria. A journey to Cuyabá and back 
preluded his advance over the watershed to Matto Grosso city, and from there he turned 
southward into Bolivia. Weddell’s valuable collections are at the Paris Museum, and 
comparatively few of his plants have been taken up in the ‘ Flora Brasiliensis * of Von 
Martius. Finally the name of Tamberlik now and again occurs in the work just named, 
as that of a collector in “ Western Brazil,’ but of the date as of the locality of his 
explorations I am in complete ignorance, and so cannot even say whether he was in 
Matto Grosso at all. 
Arriving at Buenos Ayres we, on July 28th, transhipped into the Brazilian mail-boat, and 
proceeded up the River Plate. Our journey was uneventful, and on the morning of 
August 5th the Rio Apa was reached and we entered Matto Grosso. The most 
remarkable feature of this part of the river is the occurrence of forests composed 
exclusively of the Caranda Palm (Copernicia cerifera, Mart.). kxtending for a 
considerable distance along the shore, these forests reach northward as far as the 
neighbourhood of Coimbrá. The massing of these Palms has a very peculiar effect, the 
grey stems simulating fog, from which the feathery crowns emerge clearly into view. 
Wherever a forest fire has raged, the base of their stem is blackened and the lowest leaves 
are apt to lose colour and hang pendent; otherwise fire has no apparent effect upon 
them. The vegetation bordering this part of the river appears, so far as one can judge, 
to be composed largely of Cassia and Mimosa scrub, with Malvacew, trailing Ipomceas, 
