ON THE AMAZON AND RIO NEGKO. Ill 



abundantly towards the end of the rainy season. I have a good many 

 new species allied to common European forms, as, for instance, to 

 Jungermannia hicuspldata and irkJiophjlla ; and a series of several 

 species, apparently aU undescribed, intermediate between foliose and 

 frondose Ilepaticce. 



Very few Mosses grow on the inundated margins of the large rivers, 

 and they are species that recur everywhere. It is necessary to plunge 

 into the heart of the forest, and to seek out rocky rivulets and the 

 trunks of fallen trees which lie in or near them. Hence, when I as- 

 cended the Eio Negro in November, 1851, w^hen the river was low, 

 although there were abundance of trees in flower, the Mosses on the 

 banks were so much dried up as to appear almost non-existent. The 

 contrary was the case when I came from the Eio Uaupes to San Carlos 

 in March last, when the rivers were rising, and the rains were frequent 

 and violent. The trunks of the inundated trees were in many cases 

 clad with a green coating of Mosses and Hepaticce, but the trees 

 themselves were almost without exception destitute of flowers. 



I shall do my best to explore the mountains at the back of Esme- 

 ralda, but I do not expect much from them. The great peculiarity of 

 the mountains I have hitherto visited is that they are hills without 

 valleys — lumps of granite sticking up out of the plain. They seem all 

 destitute of water ; and this is probably the reason why they are quite 

 uninhabited, there not being, so far as I can learn, so much as an 

 Indian's hut on all the mountains of the llio Negro and Alto Orinoco. 



I am glad to find that my specimens, both for the Herbarium and 

 Museum, have given you satisfaction. It is the certainty that ray 

 friends in Europe will appreciate my labours, that enables me to bear 

 up under the hardships of travel in this region. I have no doubt that 

 a stronger man than I might do more, but even the strongest must be 

 content to lose a great deal of time among a people so lethargic as this, 

 as Mr. Wallace can better inform you. My health, about which you 

 so kindly inquire, is much as it was in England, — easily disordered, 

 but (with care) rarely seriously affected. I suppose I am so thoroughly 

 acclimated to the tropics that I shall take ill to a cold climate again. 



I am much interested with what you tell me of your Museum and 

 the Victor ia-\io\]i%e. As a general rule there are no aquatics (save 

 Podostemons) on the Eio Negro, and no Grasses. 



{To he continued.) 



