Information respecting Botanical Travellers. 331 



ing plant, which I found on the first day, growing on rocks, stones, 

 and among gravel in the bed of the Rio Salgado, about 5 leagues 

 from Ico. As it was in seed, the flowers having all passed away, I 

 could not positively ascertain the genus, but I suspect it to belong 

 to Mniopsis, Mart., at all events to the natural order Podostemacea. 

 From Ico I brought several letters of recommendation to this place ; 

 but before I left the former town, one of my fellow-travellers from 

 Pernambuco having written to a friend here that I was about to visit 

 his neighbourhood, I found that an empty house had been obligingly 

 procured for my reception. 



Crato is a small and sufficiently miserable town, situated in the 

 hollow part of a large valley, several leagues in extent, and bounded 

 by the Serra de Araripe on the south and west. In case you should 

 consult a map of Brazil to find the place where I now am, I may 

 mention that the one which I possess, and which I believe to be the 

 last published, is very incorrect as regards the situations of the towns 

 in this province : for instance, Ico is placed where the Serras de 

 Mangabeira ought to be, and vice verscl^nd the distance between them 

 ought to be 10 leagues. Crato, instead of being 10 leagues to the 

 S.W. of led, is 30, thus bringing it exactly to the Serra de Araripe, 

 its proper position ; and Barra de Jardim (not Bomjardin) is 16 

 leagues to the south of Crato. Sugar cane, mandiocea, rice and to- 

 bacco are the principal articles of culture in the vicinity of Crato. 

 From the juice of the cane a kind of sugar is j)repared called rapa 

 dura, and made into hard cakes about the size of half bricks. This sub- 

 stance is used all over the Sertao as a substitute for sugar, and forms 

 the great article of commerce between Crato and Ico. Almost all the 

 fruits which are sold in the towns near the coast are obtainable here : 

 such as the orange, lime, lemon, mango, papau, banana, plantain, 

 grape, pine- apple, melon, and water-melons. The first of these are 

 vended at about Id. the dozen, pine-apples double that price, and I 

 purchased to-day a remarkably fine-flavoured melon, as big as my 

 head, for about 2c?. of our money. There are a few small planta- 

 tions of cocoa-nuts, which appear to thrive well and bear abundantly, 

 and in the woods are great numbers of cashew trees, but their fruit 

 (or rather the thickened peduncle, which is the esculent part) is small, 

 not bigger than a cherry : probably it is a different species, of whi^h 

 you may judge, as I send you a specimen in flower and leaf, and to 

 Mr. Murray a few of its seeds. In the Catingas, or deciduous fo- 

 rests, a fruit abounds called mangaba, of which you received speci- 

 mens from Pernambuco ; it belongs to the Apocynece, and the flavour 

 is, in my opinion, very superior to that of any native fruit that I have 



