812 BOTANICAL INFORMATION, 
three days, and under circumstances which almost rendered collecting 
impossible. These so-called “ negociantes” of the Amazon correspond 
to our hucksters in England: poorer devils you could not find in any 
country, and they are glad to lay hold on a passenger, whom they make 
to bear nearly all the expense of the voyage. 
My own wishes point now to the Uaupés, a large river, which is 
undoubtedly the main branch of the Rio Negro, and whose source can- 
not be far from Santa Fé de Bogota. The general course of the Rio 
Negro is easterly (not southerly, as is generally said), and nearly pa- 
rallel-to that of the Japurá ; the Indians frequently cross from one to 
the other. I suppose I may have got some plants on the Rio Negro 
which Martius found on the Japurá. The sources of the Rio Negro 
are well known; they are not much above Thomo, and all the ramifi- 
cations represented on maps extending westward are imaginary. I 
have conversed with several people who have crossed from the upper 
part of the Icanna by a short portage to the Guaviare (a branch of the 
Orinoco), without encountering any tributary of the Rio Negro. 
The ancient ** Capitania do Rio Negro” has lately been elevated into 
a province, under the name of “Provincia do Amazonas,” with the 
Barra for its capital. They talk of making the Barra a “ porto do 
mar,” and allowing foreign vessels to trade to it; but this is too good 
news to be true—the Brazilians have a mortal fear of an English 
steamer entering the Amazon. 
BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 
Paper of DAPHNE LAUREL (Spurge Laurel). 
Now that public attention is so much directed to the obtaining use- 
ful fibre from various plants, whether for textiles or for our paper ma- 
nufactories, it may not be uninteresting to our readers to know that 
paper has been prepared from the common European Spurge-Laurel 
(Daphne Laureola). In the north of India, allied species of Daphne 
(Daphne cannabina, Daphne Gardneri, ete.), have been, perhaps for 
= centuries, employed by the natives in the preparation of a strong and 
useful paper for the ordinary purposes of the country. Dr. Wallich 
