168 TflE SAVANXA OF ARTPO. 



influence of the sun's l)eams, propagate their race. Those 

 chain-like, fantastic, strange-looking lianes, resembling a 

 family of boas, are Bauhinias; and beyond, through the 

 opening you see, in the abandoned ground of some squatter's 

 garden, the trumpet-tree (Cecropia) and the groo-groo, the 

 characteristic plants of the rastrajo. 



" Xow, let us proceed on our walk ; we mean the cascade : 

 Here it is, opposite to you, a grand spectacle indeed ! 

 From a perpendicular wall of solid rock, of more than three 

 hundred feet, down rushes a stream of water, splitting in the 

 air and producing a constant shower, which renders this 

 lovely spot singularly and deliciously cool. Xearly the whole 

 extent of this natural wall is covered with plants, among 

 which you can easily discern numbers of ferns and mosses, 

 two species of Pitcairnia with beautiful red flowers, some 

 Aroids, various nettles, and here and there a Begonia. How 

 different such a spot woidd look in cold Europe .' Below, in 

 the midst of a never-failing drizzle, grow luxuriant Ardisias, 

 Aroids, Ferns, Costas, Heliconias, Centropogons, Hydroco- 

 tyles, Cyperoids, and Grasses of various genera, Trades- 

 cantias and Commelynas, Billbergias, and, occasionally, a 

 few small Rubiacepe and Melastomaceae." 



The cascade, when I saw it, was somewhat disfigured 

 above and below. Above, the forest-fires of last year had 

 swept' the edge of the cliff, and had even crawled half-way 



