46 1 Information respecting Botanical Travellers. 



his excellency having been given a few days afterwards, Mr. Watts 

 and myself proceeded to the palace, accompanied by Dr. Loudon, 

 who is a personal friend of the President. He received us very kindly ; 

 and when Mr. Watts stated the object of my visit to the country, he 

 promised to afford me all the assistance in his power, and desired me 

 to call again the next day, when he would give me a letter to Dr. 

 Serpa, the Professor of Botany and Curator of the Botanic Garden at 

 Olinda. 



For the first few days my walks extended but little beyond the 

 suburbs of the town. The country is quite flat, and the soil very 

 sandy; and as the dry season had commenced, the herbaceous vege- 

 tation on the more exposed situations was beginning to suffer for 

 want of rain. For many miles round the town of Pernambuco the 

 cocoa nut and other large palms grow in the greatest profusion, mixed 

 with fine trees of Anacardium Occident ale (the Cashew), then loaded 

 with large yellow or reddish coloured fruits ; with mangoes (Man- 

 gifera indicci) which here attain a much larger size than at Rio, 

 though still far from equalling those of Bahia ; and the two species 

 of bread fruit (Artocarpus incisa and A. integrifolia), the ends of the 

 branches in the former and the trunks and main boughs of the latter 

 supporting their monstrous fruits. More attention seems to be paid 

 here than at Rio to the gardens which are attached to the houses 

 near the town, many of them being adorned with beautiful flowering 

 shrubs, chiefly of Indian origin. During my first walks I collected 

 specimens of the following plants : Turnera trioniflora, which grows 

 profusely in waste and cultivated spots, and by road sides, even de- 

 corating some of the less frequented streets with its large pale yellow 

 flowers, which only expand during the early part of the day; and, in 

 the same situations, a fine large blossomed species of Richardsonia, 

 Boerhaavia hirsute, and Argemone mexicana. In marshy places, which 

 were beginning to be dried up, I found fine specimens of Pontederia 

 paniculata, Hydrolea spinosa, and a small purple-flowered Ammannia. 

 In spots which were either now under cultivation, or had once been 

 so, grew Elytrariu tridentata, a narrow-leaved Stachytarpheta, An- 

 geloniapubescens, Monnieria trifolia, a small Eriocaulon, several small 

 Leguminosce, and Conoclinium prasiifolium, DC. Where the ground 

 was dry and among bushes I observed Hirtella racemosa, in great 

 plenty and full bloom, together with a small frutescent Malpighia- 

 ceous plant, and Jatropha urens, and /. gossypiifolia, the latter some- 

 times attaining the stature of a tree, and being not unfrequently used 

 for hedges. The Mimosa and the fences, as about Rio, are festooned 

 with Malpighice, Bignonice, Ipomcea and Leguminosce, of which the 



