174 RELATION BETWEEN CLIMATE AND VEGETATION 



the mouth of the Rio Jauru, and on the ISth arrived at Villa 

 Maria, where we found our mules and baggage. 



At Villa Maria my companions and myself parted company, 

 as I was obliged to return for a few days to Ciiyaba. I was 

 again at Villa Maria on the 12th of June, and then proceeded 

 onwards. 



Instead of the ordinary road over the Campos, I took that of 

 the Pantanals, which is never followed in the rainy season, and 

 from which I had great difficulty in extricating myself, although 

 many scorcliing days had already partially dried it. Nothing is 

 more uninteresting than the journey across the great Pantanal, 

 which takes its origin near the small town of Pocone, about 60 

 miles S.W. of Cuyaba. I first of all came upon a great desert 

 of cracked mud, covered with tall herbaceous plants, and dotted 

 here and there with a clump of Carandas {Copcrnicia ceriferci) ; 

 then I found myself in a large sort of quagmire, no less than 20 

 miles long, with here and there a tree, and inhabited by hiindi eds 

 of herons and spoonbills. There was not a single interesting 

 plant in the whole of this dismal and monotonous country, and 

 it was not until I re-entered the foi'ests in the neighbourhood of 

 Villa Maria that I again increased my collections. During my 

 stay in this village I visited the places in which the Ipecacuanha 

 grows, but as I have already (' Annales des Sc. Nat.,' 3rd ser., 

 vol. xi.) described these places, I sliall omit all mention of 

 them here. 



It was not until the 26th of July that I finally quitted Villa 

 Maria; and the very first day I journeyed towards Matto-G rosso 

 I had the misfortune to lose half my things in consequence of 

 the villainous state of the roads ; the reader may form some idea 

 of this when he is told that of the twelve mules with which I 

 started only three arrived safe in camp. The route I took is 

 impassable in the rainy season, and travellers always cross the 

 bay, which is at this time of the year navigable, and which 

 is formed by the spreading out of the Paraguay. I was told 

 that in December the whole of tiiis piece of water was covered 

 with the large spiny leaves and white flowers of tlie Victoria, 

 but I saw nothing of it. Between tiiis place and the Rio de 

 Jauru the road lies through a country of Campos and tliick 

 copses (Serradoes), broken here and tliere with a small forest 

 interwoven with climbers and bamboos : the soil is in some 

 places sandy and dry, in others covered with a layer of mud of 

 varying thickness, which is deposited by the waters which 

 periodically irrigate it. The most remarkable plant in this dis- 

 trict is a small Cycad (Zamia Brongniariii, Nob.), which is 

 also found in tolerable abundance in the hilly Campos near 

 Villa-Maria; of all theCycads this seems to be found farthest to 



