J 62 KELATION BETWEEN CLIMATE AND VEGETATION 



Thousands of streams descend the mountains and keep tlie 

 ravines perpetually damp. Some flow without noise over beds 

 of Lycopods, Ilymenophylls, and Dorstenias ; others rush with 

 violence on their bed of granite, and sweep with irresistible force 

 before them any obstacle they may encounter. Near Sambam- 

 baia or Bello-monte, about 800 yards above the sea, we followed 

 a small river, on the banks of which we found tlie gigantic 

 Guada or Bambusa Tagoara, which, rising to the height of 

 some 60 feet, falls over and forms a sort of natural cradle. The 

 Tree Ferns grow much larger here than in the neighbourhood of 

 Rio. These beautiful plants give a charm that is almost magical 

 to tropical vegetation ; their rugged stems are generally covered 

 with other species of the same fiamily, or afford support to dif- 

 ferent sorts of JBillhergia or j^chniea, Caladium. and other 

 epiphytes. Begonias are so numerous that they give quite a 

 character to the vegetation ; one of them climbs to the tops of 

 the largest trees, runs over their trunks, and sends forth a beau- 

 tiful scent from its large red flowers. 



Whilst in the Organ Mountains I made a large collection of 

 interesting plants, which were, however, afterwards for the 

 most part destroyed. 



A long stay in virgin forests near Eio liad accustomed me to 

 their marvellous beauties. When I left the Serra d'Estrella, 

 with its fine Palms and trees covered with festoons of Bugain- 

 villea and Bignonias ; when, returning from the plains, I saw 

 the horizon everywhere bounded by ramparts of trunks and 

 dark foliage, I longed to get away to the Campos of the inte- 

 rior, which were represented to be a second promised land. At 

 the end of November we passed the small town of Parahyba, 

 and a few days afterwards we crossed the Eio Paraiiybuna, the 

 southern limit of the province of the Mines. From this place 

 the ground rises by several gradients as far as the great central 

 table-land of Brazil. The Serra de Mantiqueira forms the first 

 of these steps. The mean height of its plain is about 1000 yards 

 above the sea. Here begin the Campos, literally the fields; 

 but they are so only as compared with tfie forests. I should not 

 have had an accurate idea of them had I not seen the description 

 given of them by M. Aug. de Saint-IIilaire. The soil is seldom 

 naked, and still more seldom clothed with a true herbaceous 

 vegetation. Their surface is generally covered here and there 

 with small bushes, Malpighiads, Melastomads, Myrtleblooms, 

 Kieh)ieyera, 3Ii)nosece, Bauhinia, Solaniwi, Diplusodon, Anofia, 

 Vellozia, &c. ; to which may be added, as we advance inland, a 

 large number of taller species, which more or less resemble in 

 appearance the trees of our own orchards ; sucli are Bignoniads, 

 Dilleniads, Sterculiads, several Papilionacese, a Ilymencea, Sal- 



