•202 BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 



CiUDADE DiAMANTiNA, (formerly Tijuco), 

 August 4th, 1840. 



I MAKE use of the first opportunity that is aiforded of send- 

 ing letters from this place, to inform you that I arrived here 

 safely, eight days ago. Gladly would I give you a particular 

 account of my journey from the Villa de Arrayas, but as I 

 am now very much occupied with drying and arranging, pre- 

 paratory to sending off our late collections, it is needful to 

 defer these details till some future time. I may however 

 mention that we started from Arrayas on the 6th of May, 

 and arrived at San Romao on the Rio Francisco, on the 21st 

 of June. During the journey I collected upwards of four 

 hundred species of plants, among which there are many fine 

 Co?}iposit(E, particularly from the Serra Qua!, which divides 

 the province of Goyaz from those of Pevnambuco and Minas 

 Geraes. Between the Rio San Francisco and this place, my 

 researches were also tolerably successful ; and though I am 

 unable to state the exact number of species, there cannot be 

 much fewer than two hundred and fifty. You will perceive 

 that (from this and my former statements) I have collected 

 during last year considerably more than two thousand species. 

 Although the country in this neighbourhood has a bai'e, rocky, 

 and barren like appearance, it is very rich in new and strik- 

 ing plants. Owing to my ari-iving with all my drying papers 

 full to the very brim with green specimens, I have as yet 

 been able to make but two or three short excursions in the 

 neighbourhood, during which I have found many fine plants, 

 such as three species of purple Vellozia, one of them very 

 dwarfish and growing in clusters, exactly resemblinof the purple 

 variety of Crocus vernus; two kinds of Physocalyx, several 

 Vaccinia, a beautiful Arbutus and Rubus, two Lupines, one 

 of which forms a large shrub, many noble Melastomacece, 

 numerous Compositce, particularly those belonging to De 

 Candolle's subdivision AlbertinitB, many Lychnophora, Hap- 

 hstephiiim, Lychnocephalce, ^r. The genus Lychnophora is a 

 most remarkable one, some of the species have the habit of 



