246 MR. SPRUCE’S BOTANICAL EXCURSION 
night concealed himself in Mr. Hislop’s sleeping-room (no very diffi- 
cult task), and in the dead of night stabbed him in the breast, as he 
lay in the hammock, and then attempted to make off with a large trunk, 
but falling with it over a chair in the dark, Mr. Hislop’s servants were 
aroused and ran to his assistance. The scoundrel had, however, taken 
the precaution of setting open the doors before commencing operations, 
and when the servants reached the spot he had effected his escape. 
The knife he had used was found on the floor; it seemed to have been 
made on purpose for the deed, of a piece of iron hoop, beaten into the 
shape of a poinard, and sharpened only at the point. Although in 
possession of this, all the efforts of the police to discover its owner 
have been unavailing. The wound had been intended “to serve ;” but 
the knife had pierced the breast-bone without reaching any vital organ. 
It is now quite healed, to external appearance ; but Mr. Hislop, who 
is some seventy years old, though up to this period hale and hearty, 
has received a shock, from the effects of which he will never recover. 
October 1th.— Since last date we have been waiting in almost daily 
expectation of starting for the Barra, and I have consequently been able 
to leave home very little. On the shores of a small bay of the Tapajoz, 
I found, a few days ago, a diminutive Zsoefes, much resembling the 
British Z. Jacustris. If I may trust to Endlicher, this is the first Zsoefes 
that has been found in South America. Near it grew the smallest 
Scrophulariacea Y ever met with ; its stems creeping and buried in the 
sand, sending up short branches, with one or two pairs of minute fleshy 
leaves, and a comparatively large purple flower. In character it comes 
near Herpestes. Y have added another Podostemacea to my collection, 
gathered on stones by the Amazon. This is a foliaceous species, and 
had I found it without flowers, I should probably have taken it for a 
Jungermannia. It is singular that the shores of the Tapajoz produce no 
Podostemaceæ, though more stony than the Amazon, and even in some 
parts rocky ; but the rocks and stones, instead of bearing plants, are 
constantly encrusted by some Polypidon. 
I have no description of the Gutta Percha tree, but from what I 
recollect of a figure I have seen, the Sapotacea now sent under 
No. 296 should come very near it. This tree is not unfrequent in 
sandy and gravelly situations near Santarem. Its milk is sweet and 
wholesome, and rapidly beeomes hard; but it is not poured out in 
such quantities as in the Masseranduba, or Milk-tree. Several Apocyneæ 
