34 MAIITIUS ON THE BOTANY OK BRAZIL. 



to the Rio de San Francisco, and rises again on the other 

 side in the Table-land of Goyaz. Further towards the north 

 is a country of a similar nature, which includes the interior 

 of the province of Bahia, the south-western part of the province 

 of Pernambuco, and the valley of the province of Piauhy. 

 The heat is much greater than in the same latitude upon the 

 coast, or than in the more elevated Minas district ; for the 

 present region, with the exception of the small range of Car- 

 riri mountains and their ramifications, scarcely exceeds 1000 

 or 1200 feet above the level of the sea. The rains that 

 commence in October in the more southern parts, further to 

 the north prevail from December to January, and sometimes 

 fail almost entirely for several years. The winds that blow 

 in the districts beyond the Tropics, frequently with great 

 violence, particularly from the south-west, are here of rare 

 occurrence ; and often the clear, pure and dry air, continues 

 for months without any variation. This characteristic of the 

 climate, together with the almost total absence of vegetable 

 mould ("dammerde"), occasion a great variation of the Flora 

 of this country from that already treated of. The forests are 

 of less extent, and are either in the neighbourhood of rivers, 

 or on the mountains, which are covered by them even to the 

 summits, if they are sufficiently elevated to experience a cur- 

 rent of moist air which comes from the coast : thus producing 

 a coast-climate. The low grounds, in which the dew most 

 frequently supplies the place of rains, are especially covered 

 with shrubs and bushes. As the plains frequently expand 

 very suddenly, and are overrun for an immense extent with 

 shrubs of a man's height, so we here find ourselves as it were 

 in an ocean of plants. This vegetable feature is called in the 

 country Carrasco^ and is, of all that exist in the tropics of the 

 Brazils, the poorest in species, although it may be abun- 

 dant in individuals. . It clothes a great part of the country 

 on the other side of the Rio de San Francisco, the whole in- 

 terior of Goyaz, Pernambuco, and the northern provinces of 

 Rio Grande and Ciara. The forests that exist here have 

 seldom that fulness and the lofty growth of those of the coast, 



