OF THE MATTO GROSSO EXPEDITION, 1891-92. 271 
Leaving Jangada on the 18th, we crossed the hilly country and at noon on the 15th 
dismounted before a “ fazenda ” on the Jocoara river, a tributary of the Paraguay. Upon 
the banks of this viver grows a plant, presumably a species of Z/ex, which furnishes a maté 
and is largely used by the inhabitants of the district. At the fazenda they were drying 
leafy branches of the shrub in a store, and when dry pounding them with strong 
wooden rods in a deep vessel made of wood. I did not secure specimens of the plant at 
that time; but soon after our arrival at Santa Cruz I instructed a messenger from 
Cuyabá, on his return, to beg the people to send me some material, and a small party 
from the Zvplorer, who went into the city on business some weeks after, also pre- 
ferred the same request, and compliance was promised; for some reason, however, no 
specimen ever reached me. This maté is somewhat darker in colour than the Paraguayan 
_ kind, and yields a browner liquor, which is decidedly bitter to the taste. On September 
16th we saw the waters of the Paraguay flashing in the morning sun, and our journey 
was at an end. 
Santa Cruz, better known in the neighbourhood by the name of Barra dos Bugres, is 
situated on a low bluff upon tlie further, or, since its course is here almost due east and 
west, northern side of the Paraguay. On the southern side of the river there is here 
much low-lying open campo, and the river is approached through Bromeliaceous serub. 
The bluff is composed of exceedingly fine-grained red shales, often greasy to the touch—. 
these Dr. Evans distinguishes as Matto shales. The ground rises rapidly from the river, 
above which the upper part of the settlement stands some 100 feet; it is here of cerrado 
nature, but immediately beyond you suddenly evter a dense virgin forest, extending 
many miles to the northward. Close by, the small Rio dos Bugres joins the Paraguay, 
and this gives the place its alternative name. "The Rio dos Bugres flows northward to 
the hills forming the southern escarpment ofthe great Amazonian plateau; it receives in 
its course the tributary Rio Brasinho, of which the feeders traverse the forest just 
referred to. 
Of trees at Santa Cruz there are plenty, but the bulk of the vegetation consists of tall 
evergreen shrubs, usually more or less deprived of leaves in their lower part. Agreeably 
with what one sees in the country to the eastward, the trees for the most part do not grow 
very high, and they often have stout, greatly divaricated branches, invested in thick, 
sometimes locally swollen “ bark,” in all probability functioning as a preventive of 
evaporation. In a ramble round the settlement you will see the Vochysiaceous 
Callisthene fasciculata, Mart., and species of Qualea (grandiflora, Mart., parviflora, Mart., 
pilosa, Warm.), Rheedia Guacopary, 8. Moore, with pleasantly acid yellow fruits used 
in place of vinegar by the people and esteemed as a bait for certain fish, and the Stercu- 
liaceous Guazuma ulmifolia, Lam., much like a Lime in general appearance, its sweet- 
scented flowers the resort of neighbouring bees. For the fruit of the tall Siputa 
tree (Salacia Siputa, S. Moore) you must go to the river-banks, where will also be 
found the Caja (Spondias lutea, Linn.), Brosimopsis lactescens, the type of a new 
genus of Artocarpew, also the myrmecophilous Triplaris formicosa, S. Moore. 
Jacaranda cuspidifolia, Mart., a species confined to the province, flaunts its dark blue 
