274 MR. SPENCER LE M. MOORE—-PHANEROGAMIC BOTANY 
of new-mown hay, and species of Erythroxylon, Alloplectus, Bignonia, Ischnosiphon, 
Dalechampia, Guarea, Allophyllus, swell the list of these dwellers in the twilight glades. 
Orchids you may gather in plenty, most of these, however, not in flower during 
September; chief among those then in bloom are Cattleya superba, Schomb., and Rodri- 
guezia secunda, Ruiz & Pav. (the latter, like the former, hitherto not found in this part of 
Brazil), also Dichzeas, Notylias, &e. The chief feature to notice about this forest-flora is 
its strongly pronounced affinity with that of the great Amazonian country to the north. 
I shall return to this matter later on. 
Now and again the track will emerge from dense forest to cross a short stretch of 
campo, at the most not more than a few hundred yards in width. The origin of these 
small campos must, I think, be ascribed to fires, for it is difficult to understand how 
conditions favourable to forest-growth should suddenly cease and become operative again 
at so short a distance. There is, of course, the alternative suggestion that the district 
has been the theatre of much physical change, and that these strips of campo occupy 
the sites of large rivers which formerly drained the region. But there are reasons for 
preferring the former view. Close to Tapirapuan, however, the case is different. There 
the forest ends suddenly, and after passing a narrow fringe of cerrado, you descend upon 
a grassy campo about a mile in width, beyond which, flanked by a similar cerrado fringe, 
suddenly rises the tree-clad Serra de Tapirapuan, here trending almost due east and west. 
One is led to suspect that the waters of a broad river may at one time have flowed down 
this grassy valley, and to-day a small stream, probably larger during the rainy season, 
does actually meander through it. I obtained but few plants on the campo, Bletia catenu- 
lata, Ruiz € Pav., a beautiful ground orchid, hitherto found, unless 1 mistake, only in 
Guiana and Peru, the new Herpestis parvula, a tiny inhabitant of the streamlet, and 
the Cycad, Zamia Brongniartii, Wedd., being almost all. This Cycad I afterwards 
found in plenty at Santa Cruz, which place marks the S.E. limit of known Cycad 
distribution in South America. 
Our provisions being nearly exhausted, we hastened back to Santa Cruz, from which 
place we had been absent a week, and a few days after, on Oct. 5th, we were joined by 
the party in the Explorer. With the boat two expeditions were made: in the first of 
these we ascended the Rio dos Bugres, which was soon found to be no longer navigable, 
whereupon we proceeded in a canoe up that river and up the Rio Brasinho for some 
distance through the forest. Among the plants found hereabout may be named 
Mouriria guianensis, Aubl., Mapourea Martiana, Muell. Arg., Psychotria subcrocea, 
Muell. Arg. ; Anemopegma sylvestre, a new Bignoniad with white flowers ; a new Dichea 
(D. cornuta), near D. graminoides, Lindl., from Guiana; Epidendrum variegatum, Hook., 
very common on trees overhanging the river ; another orchid, apparently an Epidendrum 
belonging to the section Amphiglottium, with the curious habit of producing new shoots 
from its persistent flower-scapes ; and Randia Ruiziana, DC., var. longiflora, again. Our 
second journey was up the Paraguay, with the object of reaching Diamantino if possible. 
The river runs through a belt of forest, beyond which, out of the reach of the precipitated 
moisture derived from fluviatile mists, there is much open campo. In the shade of 
these riverside strips of forest grow plants often conspecific with or nearly related to 
Rae cu c UE SE a E SM UM isa 
G A EA i A aii 
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