28 MARTIUS ON THE BOTANY OF BRAZIL. 



vary ad infinitum in the vegetable productions of Brazil, ac- 

 cording as the species grows fully exposed to the light of the 

 sun, or in the shade ; on lofty hills, or on low ground ; on ele- 

 vated plains, or on river-banks ; in stony places, on decayed 

 dung, or on moving sands. Frequently one and the same 

 tree, if growing half in the light and half in shade, will ex- 

 hibit different degrees of hairiness in the different parts, as is 

 observed with the Mango, (Mangifera Indica) ; and the fruit 

 is different in the quantity of saccharine, in aroma, in ab- 

 sence or presence of resins, &c., as they may chance to be 

 produced by one or another branch. Another circumstance 

 that distinguishes the Flora of the Brazils (and indeed that 

 of the tropics generally), is the extraordinary disparity in the 

 size of the individual parts of the leaves and flowers ; for 

 example, according to its age, to the season of the year, and 

 its locality. Many produce flowers when very young, and 

 then the foliage and blossoms are of small size : others require 

 a great degree of maturity in the wood in order to bear fruit, 

 and are at first sparingly clothed with blossoms; sometimes 

 in every part. The leaves of the fruit-bearing ones are often 

 3 or 4. times as large as those of the same plant in a state of 

 flower, and the substance and texture are equally altered. 

 The leaves of those trees which in the spring, that is, after the 

 rainy season, usually expand rapidly, are at first thin and 

 delicate, but by degrees they become so thick and coriaceous 

 that specimens from the same tree, gathered at different 

 periods, will frequently appear to a botanist accustomed to 

 the European forms, as belonging to a different species. It 

 is the same with the leaves and flowers, when an individual 

 of the same species grows in the moist primitive forests along 

 the sea-shore, and in the dry forests in the interior of the 

 country seldom refreshed with rain. In the latter case the 

 ramification, the thorns, the reticulation of the leaves are 

 much more copious than upon the coast. Whilst the Flora 

 is the poor tropical vegetation, there may in general be a great 

 diversity in the forms of the species ; so, on the other hand, 

 in the luxuriant tropical vegetation, there is a great close- 



