56 BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 
blossoms, but little resemble our southern species; for 
in Brazil the great number of them are large suffruticose 
plants, often attaining a height of from 4 to 6 feet}, with 
leafy, very much branched stems, each branchlet terminated 
by a large white ball, composed of a vast number of smaller 
heads, placed on peduncles of unequal length. Another 
remarkable circumstance, connected with these strange pro- 
ductions, is the fact, that the greater number of the Brazilian 
species do not inhabit water, after the manner of our native 
British Eriocaulon, but affect the most dry and arid portions 
of mountainous declivities; while many others grow in parched, 
flat, sandy places, which are flooded in the wet season.” 
Between San Romao and the Diamond district, Mr. 
- Gardner ascended a low Serra, covered with a stunted, shrubby 
vegetation, to which the inhabitants give the name of Car- 
rascos. Many of the shrubs here belonged to forms that 
were quite new to him, one of the most remarkable being, 
a fine undescribed species of the curious genus Lychnophora,* 
belonging to the natural order Composite, and peculiar to the 
mountains of Minas Gerdes; and which, together with the 
Vellozias, give a decided feature to their peculiar vegetation. 
* This shrub is about six feet high, with numerous branches 
issuing nearly horizontally from the upper part of the stem, 
each bearing a cluster of narrow leaves about half a foot long. 
The whole plant, with the exception of the upper-sides of- 
the leaves, is covered with a dense coat of long brownish wool, - 
which, in places where it grows abundantly, is collected by - 
the inhabitants to fill their beds and pillows. I afterwards 
met with some other species with leaves so very narrow, that 
at first sight, they resembled the Scotch Fir, the likeness being _ 
increased by their mode of growth, which is aw 
similar? : - 
Between Ciudade Dati and (uis Pretaj our Aitlièes: | 
cs one of the men encodes to a bee nd nube: 
.* So called, th inl woli ug of ofthe stems and under- E 
sides of the leaves.—Ep. — DOS nit 
