86 MR. SPRUCE’S BOTANICAL EXCURSION 
Thanks for the hints about Arums: Santarem is not the place for 
this tribe, any more than for the Ferns. The delta of the Amazon is 
much richer in Ferns than any place I have since seen, and had I gone 
to Marajó instead of coming up here, I might have done better in both 
Ferns and forest-trees ; but I was desirous to get into an Orchis 
country, if such existed. Now, however, I have traversed, from the 
mouth of the Amazon, a tract extending through from 700 to 800 
miles, and I am compelled to conclude that it is the reverse of rich 
in Orchidee. It is not their utter absence that I can complain of, but 
their want of variety. Here, up the Tapajoz, are old low trees filled 
with Orchises, but all of wo species; in the neighbourhood of San- 
tarem I have seen in all three species. I got a few up the Trombétas, 
but only two or three that look at all promising. In other tribes of 
plants I confess to have been disappointed to see the flowers in general 
so small :—in the tropics we look for everything on a gigantic scale, 
but here the flowers are rarely striking from their magnitude, although 
the plants that bear them are. There are some pretty things, but, 1 
fear, very very few which will come up to Mr. Pince’s expectations. 
It is for this reason that I often regret having taken Mr. Pince's £50. 
 Iwilldo the best I can to repay him in plants; and, at any rate, I 
will hold myself his debtor for the amount advanced, and repay him 
in one way or other. 
I have seen no place yet with a vegetation so varied as that of San- 
tarem, or where I can gather more species in a ramble. The campos, 
that seemed burnt up in summer, are now assuming a new vegetation ; 
and that not an annual one, but of plants whose roots have all the 
while been buried under the sand. In April and May they are said 
to be brilliant with flowers. I may hope, too, for a fair proportion of 
novelty, for the ground must be very imperfectly known. Martius is 
said to have been sick, from his half-drowning, whilst he remained here, 
and at Obidos he made no stay at all. From what I have seen, the 
south side of the Amazon has a much more varied vegetation than the 
north side; and I was disappointed at Obidos and up the Trombétas, 
to find the mass of the plants quite the same as at Para. 
I wish I was near enough to have your advice as to my next 
campaign. I suppose it will be up the Rio Negro, as we talked ere 
. lleft England, but I am doubtful whether up the main river would 
not be more profitable. Tabatinga, the frontier town, is in the centre 
of unknown land, and the eastern slope of the Andes themselves is 
