112 A BOOK-LOVER'S HOLIDAYS 



and in the glades or spots of open prairie there 

 were immense patches of Hlac and blue blos- 

 soms. The flowering trees were wonderful. 

 On some the blooms were blue, on others yel- 

 low. The most beautiful of all flamed brilliant 

 scarlet. The trees that bore them, when scat- 

 tered over hillsides that sloped steeply to the 

 brink of some rushing river, made splashes of 

 burning red against the wet and vivid green 

 of the subtropical foliage. As we got farther 

 south I was told that there were occasional 

 sharp frosts, but that the low temperature 

 never lasted for more than an hour or so. In 

 answer to a question as to how these rare, 

 short frosts affected such plants as palms and 

 tree-ferns, it was explained to me that the frosts 

 prevented coffee being grown, but that they 

 had no effect on the palms, and, rather curi- 

 ously, no effect on the tree-ferns if they were 

 under big forest trees, but that if they were in 

 the open the fronds were killed, the trees 

 themselves not being injured, and new fronds 

 taking the place of the old ones. 



In the open prairie country of the state of 

 Parana we stopped at Morungava to visit the 

 ranch of the Brazil Land, Cattle, and Packing 

 Company. Our host, the head of this com- 

 pany, Murdo Mackenzie, for many years one of 



