392 A JOURNEY IN BRAZIL. 
him, even without having made botany a special study, 
is, in a measure, prepared to appreciate the resemblances 
and the differences between plants of the tropical and 
those of the temperate regions. An acquaintance with 
the Robinia (Locust-trees), for instance, or with the large 
shrub-like Lotus, and other woody Leguminosse, will en- 
able him to recognize the numerous representatives of 
that family, forming so large a part of the equatorial 
vegetation ; and, even should he never have seen speci- 
mens of the Mimosa in gardens or hot-houses, their deli- 
cate, susceptible foliage will make them known to him ; 
he cannot fail to be struck with the inexhaustible com 
binations and forms of their pinnate leaves, as well as with 
the variety in their tints of green, the diversity in their 
clusters of leaves and in their pods and seeds. But there 
are families with which he fancies himself equally familiar, 
the tropical representatives of which will never seem to him 
like old acquaintances. Thus the tree which furnishes the 
Indian rubber belongs to the Milk-weed family. Every 
one knows the Milk-weeds of the North, to be seen, as 
humble herbs, all along the roadsides, on the edges of 
our woods and in the sands of our beaches. Yet on the 
Amazons, the Euphorbiacese, so small and unobtrusive with 
us, assume the form of colossal trees, constituting a con- 
siderable part of its strange and luxuriant forest-growth. 
The giant of the Amazonian woods, whose mnjestic flat 
crown towers over all other trees, while its white trunk 
stands out in striking relief from the surrounding mass 
of green (the Sumaumera), is allied to our mallows. 
Some of the most characteristic trees of the river-shore 
belong to these two families. Our paleontologists who 
attempt to restore the forests of older geological times 
