Academy of Sciences in Paris. 365 



Spondia in the latter country, but not the true Monbin. With the 

 exception of these trifling errors, the work of M. Vallot is highly 

 useful ; and in recommending it to the approbation of the Academy, 

 M. de St. Hilaire expressed his hope that the author would extend 

 his researches in a similar manner to the plants of other recently- 

 explored parts of the world. 



Vegetation in Brazil. On the 18th of July, M. Auguste St. 

 Hilaire read a memoir containing a variety of interesting particulars 

 respecting the primitive vegetation of the province of Minas Geraes, 

 in Brazil. The primitive vegetation, which has entirely disappeared 

 in Europe, still exists in a great part of Brazilian America, and in 

 the province in question it is particularly remarkable. The whole 

 country is divided into matos (woods), and campos (open country). 

 The woods belong partly to the primitive vegetation, and partly to 

 human industry. The latter has been exerted to replace the forests 

 which have been burnt ; the former consists of virgin forests, properly 

 so called the catingas, which lose their leaves every year, and the 

 carrascos, a species of dwarf forests, the trees of which are only from 

 three to five feet high. The province is divided throughout its 

 whole length by a chain of mountains, which extends from south to 

 north, and gives birth to a multitude of flowers. The western part is 

 merely undulated, but the eastern is mountainous ; the former is 

 open, the latter wooded ; and these two vegetable regions form two 

 zoological regions almost equally distinct. The various shades of 

 difference existing in these two principal regions are included within 

 limits almost as exactly defined as the principal regions themselves ; 

 and when, starting from the sea, and commencing from about fifteen 

 degrees south latitude, we direct our course towards the south-west, 

 we traverse in succession the virgin forests, the catingas, the carras- 

 cos, and the campos, a sort of vegetable ladder, in which the plants 

 gradually diminish in height, because the humidity of the soil and of 

 the atmosphere experiences also a gradual diminution. As the zone 

 of the forests is divided into several sub-regions, so also even that of 

 the campos, or open country, presents two very distinct subdivisions ; 

 for in the southern part of the province the campos are composed 

 only of herbs and underwood, while in the northern part tortuous 

 and stunted trees are scattered at intervals among the pasture land. 

 If the physical constitution of the province of Minas Geraes has exer- 

 cised a great influence on the primitive vegetation, its effect has not 

 been less on that which has resulted from the labours of man, and 

 which may be called artificial. Thus in the forest regions, a fetid 

 grass, called * seed herb* (herbe a la graine), takes possession of all 

 the ground formerly covered with trees ; but this grass does not 

 show itself in the campos at all, and in the northern region its exist- 

 ence is confined to the subdivision of the carrascos. The pasture 

 lands formed by this grass are called, in the country, artificial ; but 

 the campos, which are called natural, must also have been modified 



