168 Mr. Gardner's Journey to the Organ Mountains, 



elevation of about 2000 feet a large species of bamboo [Bam- 

 busa Tagoara, Mart.) makes its appearance. The stems of 

 that gigantic grass are often eighteen inches in circumference, 

 and attain a height of from fifty to sixty feet. They however 

 do not grow perfectly upright, but are much bent, the tops of 

 them sometimes nearly reaching to the ground. By the road 

 side I saw many herbaceous plants in flower, which I had not 

 then an opportunity of collecting. 



We reached Mr. March's fazenda early in the forenoon. 

 It being Christmas-day, we found his slaves, who amount to 

 100 in all, performing a native dance in the yard before the 

 house. His estate embraces an extent of country containing 

 sixty-four square miles. The greater part of it is still covered 

 by virgin forests ; what is cleared of it consists of pasture 

 land, and several small farms for the cultivation of Indian 

 corn, fiagrens (French beans), and potatoes. Plentiful crops 

 are yielded by the two former, but the produce of the lat- 

 ter is neither so abundant nor so good as it is in England. 

 He has also near to his house a large garden, under the manage- 

 ment of a French gardener, in which all the European fruits 

 and vegetables grow tolerably well. Many of these he has 

 been at much trouble and expense in introducing from the 

 Old World. From this garden he sends regular supplies of 

 vegetables to the Rio market, and they are by far the best that 

 are to be found in it. The most fertile part of the estate is si- 

 tuated between the higher chain of the Organ Mountains and 

 a range of smaller mountains nearly parallel with it. Through 

 this valley there runs a small river, about the size of the Kel- 

 vin at Glasgow, which is fed by several small streams from the 

 mountains. 



At this elevation the seasons are much better marked than 

 they are at Rio. On my arrival I found that summer was just 

 setting in, and consequently I was just in time to secure the 

 first flowers of the season. Two months earlier I was told that 

 I should have met with but few plants in flower. As my ex- 

 cursions extended in all directions, to a distance of from ten 

 to twenty miles from Mr. March's house, my collections will 

 give a tolerably accurate knowledge of the vegetable produc- 



