398 Russian Natural History Expedition in Brazil, 



endless meadows covered with beautiful Scitamineae, Cypera- 

 cece^ and many singular Gramineae. Amongst them he re- 

 marked a particular kind of Oryza (rice) of uncommon 

 height; even when the river, swollen with torrents of rain, 

 overflows these places, the spike appears still above the water, 

 and ripens its nutritive seeds. The Indian tribes, Guaycu- 

 rus, Guanas, and Guatos, in the vicinity of Albuquerque and 

 Coimbra at the boundaries of the Brazils, row tlieir canoes, 

 made of hollow trees, upon that large temporary sea, and 

 harvest the floating rice, which nature has given them with- 

 out any labour save the gathering. 



After descending the Taquari into the Paraquay, M. Rie- 

 del took his course up the latter river, till he arrived at the 

 mouth of the S. Lorenzo, where he left the Paraquay ; and, 

 after a seven months' voyage up the S. Lorenzo, arrived in 

 January, 1827, in the river Cujaba. He could ascend these 

 rivers but slowly, as they were in an overflowing state, and 

 consequently the current much more violent than usual. The 

 shores of the foregoing rivers were chiefly clothed with Gar- 

 den2Vp, iSapia, Cecr6p^<^, and amongst others a new species 

 of Hermesia. The prodigious masses of the Ponteder/ff 

 crassipes Mart, were often a great and troublesome impedi- 

 ment to their canoes ; and thick clouds of musquitoes pur- 

 sued and tormented these enterprising travellers day and 

 night. 



Arrived at the town of Cuyaba, M. Riedel made excursions 

 most carefully in the vicinity, and very much enriched his 

 collection. He started afterwards for a few months to the 

 famous mountains where, in former times, the goldwashers 

 procured quantities of that noble metal. There he discovered 

 many scarce and new plants, among which he mentioned 

 in particular, — Salvert/a, Cnestis, Simdba, Phaeocarpus, Dip- 

 terix (the Tonquin bean), Chrysophylla, Cinch6n<^, Ptero- 

 carpi, Luhe^, Helicteres, Nordnte^; shrubs of Hippocrates, 

 A'nthodon, JWyristicse, Hosta, Asclepiadet^, Apocyneae, Dil- 

 \m\dcece, Guttiferae, and a beautiful kind of Terminalia. 

 Amongst a number of different palms which adorn the native 

 woods and campos or plains, he noticed chiefly Attalia spe- 

 ci5sa, Attalia compacta, Mauriti^ armata, Mauriti« vinifera, 

 Corypha cerifera, GEnocarpus Bataua^ Euterpe, Astrocaryum, 

 and Cbcos, By a digression to the diamond districts, thirty 

 leagues from Cuyaba, he came to the source of the Paraquay, 

 and found that this river did not, as formerly stated, take its 

 origin out of seven lakes (seven lagoons) ; he met with merely 

 a large bog, out of which arises, in the shade of Mauritis, 

 that, river which^ in its course, increases so enormously. 



