1G4 RELATION BETWEEN CLIMATE AND VEGETATION 



arborescent lily, there attains a height of some 9 feet, and now 

 and then forms dense thickets ; its beautiful blue flowers seated 

 in the midst of elegant terminal rosettes, the snow-wliite umbels 

 of Eriocaulon, the brilliant panicles of 3Iicrolicia, the festoons, 

 golden and purple, of Banisteria and EcJiites, produce a most 

 enchanting; effect. 



The town of Ouro-Preto, formerly known by the name of 

 Villa- Rica, is as poor now as it was formerly rich. Its popula- 

 tion, about 12,000, is not above two-thirds of what it was. In 

 company with M. Claus.-en, generally known in Brazil as the 

 Dane, we visited Cachoeira do Campo, a small village about 

 12 miles from the town ; the famous Mount Itacolume, which 

 gives its name to the rock which constitutes the greater portion 

 of the geological formation of this province ; the botanic 

 garden, &c. In the latter place we were shown a small cypress, 

 a horse-chesnut, and a mulberry-tree, wliich are here looked 

 upon as great curiosities. Nearly all the tea consumed in the 

 province is grown in the botanic garden. 



Pearly in 1844 we visited the gold mines of Catabranca de 

 Morro-Velho and of GongoSoco, worked by Englishmen, who 

 paid us every attention. Mount Itabira, which rises near Cata- 

 branca to a height of about 1600 yards, and which is composed 

 of iron that is nearly pure, Mas the object of a special visit. At 

 the time of wliich we speak all the surrounding table-land was 

 covered by an inmiense pink mass of the flowers of Microlicia. 

 M. Aug. de St. Hilaire has made known a plant which is peculiar 

 to these iron mountains of the high parts of Brazil ; it bears the 

 name of Remija. Its bark is called Quina da Serra, and is used 

 as a substitute for Peruvian bark. 



From Rio to Sahara, a little town of 5000 inhabitants, and 

 about 30 miles from Oui'o-Preto, our course had been nearly due 

 north, but we now turned towards the centre of the continent. 

 The thickets which had begun to appear in the neighbourhood of 

 Sahara, grow denser and denser as the interior is approached ; 

 and the height of the table-land, which is at Ouro-Preto about 

 1200 yards above the sea, is soon reduced to one-half. Beyond 

 Pitangui and the charming river Para, whicli is flanked by mag- 

 nificent forests, the Campo appears for a short distance, and then 

 gives way to the woods which border on the Rio San Francisco. 

 To these succeed the fertile pastures of As Dores, bounded by 

 the small Serra da Saudade, a branch of the Serra da Canastra ; 

 then come new forests, and so on. 



When we entered the Campos Geraes, the palm-trees whicli 

 had attracted our attention in the province of Rio de Janeiro 

 seemed to have completely disappeared, and to be replaced l)y 

 the Araucaria Brasiliensis. Cocos oleracea alone showed itself 



