A NATURALIST IN BRAZIL 



In Pernambuco there was a similar Euphorbia, but this was only 

 a shrub. This too turned its rosettes of coloured leaves towards the 

 sun, but only the inner half of each leaf was a fiery red. The shrub 

 is known locally as "Seems and isn't" — namely, a flower. There is 

 also a grass which bears such a rosette of leaves at its tip — but these 

 are silvery- white. In another Euphorbia the apparent flower consists 

 of two opposed leaves of a flesh-red colour, which are at the same 

 time glands, and enclose the invisible flower. Such a "flower" looks 

 like an umbel; the Brazilians, in reference to the two red leaves, 

 call the shrub "The Two Friends." This shrub is covered with thorns, 

 and is useful for hedging a garden. There are other thorny Euphor- 

 bias, with fleshy, cactus-like boughs, which are likewise used for 

 hedging ; if one grazes or breaks them in forcing one's way through 

 the hedge, a white poisonous milk gushes out; so that such a 

 "Tirucalli hedge" is impenetrable. 



Another very curious Euphorbia is known as the "Leaf-bloomer," 

 because the flowers with which the shrub is covered seem to spring 

 from the edge of the large green leaves. The apparent leaves, however, 

 are merely expanded twigs, which have taken over the work of the 

 leaves, while these have degenerated. 



Like foam glowing in the evening sun the wine-red blossoms of 

 the Bougainvillea surge over the walls of the Brazilian gardens to 

 greet the passer-by. Examine one of these blooms : you will find 

 that the actual flowers have nothing to do with this resplendent 

 display of colour; they are small and yellowish-green, tubular in 

 form, assembled in threes, the outer ends of the corollae being slightly 

 divergent. Here again leaves have become blossoms, retaining their 

 shape and their innervation, but changing their original green for 

 a splendid wine-red. 



In the Arums too the club-shaped inflorescence protrudes from 

 a bract which surrounds it like a sugar-bag, and this bract is a 

 splendid red, or is spotted with red; and the Gravatas too adorn 

 their inflorescence with handsomely coloured bracts, and sometimes 

 employ contrasting hues of red and yellow. And in the flower of 

 the Indian Cane or Canna even the stamens have to play their part 

 in the make-up of the splendid, iris-like flower ; only one stamen 

 carries an anther ; the rest are expanded into leaf-shaped forms, and 

 one is turned over like a lip. The Cannas may be seen growing like 

 yellow flags in damp, low-lying ground ; others, a lustrous orange- 

 red, or speckled with red, surround the huts of the workers in the 

 sugar-fields of Pernambuco, and the impression produced by their 



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