110 A JOURNEY IN BRAZIL. 
above them. Mr. Agassiz gathered and examined great 
numbers of them, and found that the young Palms, to 
whatever genus they may belong, invariably resemble the 
Charaaerops, having their leaves extending fan-like on one 
plane, instead of being scattered along a central axis, as 
in the adult tree. The infant Palm is in fact the mature 
Chamaerops in miniature, showing that among plants as 
among animals, at least in some instances, there is a cor- 
respondence between the youngest stages of growth in the 
higher species of a given type and the earliest introduction 
of that type on earth.* 
At the close of our ramble, from which the Professor 
returned looking not unlike an ambulatory representative 
of tropical vegetation, being loaded down with palm-branch- 
es, tree-ferns, and the like, we found breakfast awaiting us. 
Some of our party were missing, however, the hunters 
having already taken their stations at some distance near 
the water. The game was an Anta (Tapir), a curious 
animal, abounding in the woods of this region. It has a 
special interest for the naturalist, because it resembles 
certain ancient mammalia now found only among the 
fossils, just as the tree-fern, Chama3rops, &c. resemble 
past vegetable types. Although Mr. Agassiz had seen it 
in confinement, he had a great desire to observe it in 
action under its natural condition, and in the midst of a 
tropical forest as characteristic of old geological times 
as the creature itself. It was, in fact, to gratify this desire 
that Mr. Lage had planned the hunt. " L'homme propose 
et Dieu dispose," however, and, as the sequel will show, 
* In the same way, it may be said that in its incipient growth the Dicoty- 
ledonous Plant exhibits, in the structure of its germinative leaves, the character- 
istic features of Mouocotvlcdonous Plants. L A.. 
