160 DELATION BETWEEX CLIMATE AND VEGETATION 



the natural order Leguminosce, exists in the forests between the 

 Gold and Diamond districts and the coast, Poeppig has caused 

 anotlier error to be committed by a species of Physocalymna, 

 whicli he has figured and described in his Nova Genera as a 

 Diplusodon. Dr. Lindley, in a number of the Gardener's Chro- 

 nicle for 1841, has given a woodcut of this figure as an illustra- 

 tion of the genus Diplusodon, to which it no more belongs than 

 a species of Lagerstra:nna does. The flowers of the Uiplusodons 

 are always axillary, never paniculate. The woods and campos 

 were rich in shrubs, such as ^</i/«ce<s, which were very common, 

 in the shape of such genera as Coffea, Faramea, Palicourea, 

 Psychotria, CepJiai-lis, Sabicea, &c. ; MelastomacecB, MyrtacecB, 

 Leyuminosce, Compositce, Lantanas, Diplusodons, &c. I made 

 several excursions to the summit of the serra, and was richly 

 rewarded by the number of new plants they yielded. The ge- 

 neral appearance of this mountain range is very different from 

 that of the Organ Mountains, being almost entirely destitute of 

 arboreous vegetation, there existing only a few small trees and 

 shrubs in sheltered situations. It consists entirely of primitive 

 rocks, such as compact limestone, arenaceous schistose rocks, and 

 granite. In boggy places, about half way up, I collected a Dro- 

 sera, two small species of Durmanyiia, Sauvagesia racemosa, 

 St. Hil., a fine yellow-flowered Cyrtopodium, with very long 

 leaves, and flowering stems upwards of six feet long, and another 

 splendid terrestrial Orchideous plant, a reed-like plant about 

 three feet high, with very large rose-coloured flowers, belonging 

 to the genus Cleistes (C. speciosa, Gardn.). In gravelly places, 

 which were evidently abandoned gold-washings, grew three fine 

 species of Anemia, two beautiful Alstrannerius, and two erect 

 species of Ipomcea, one of them (/. neriifoUa, Gardn.) about two 

 feet high, and very handsome, having long narrow oleander-like 

 leaves, and numerous large pale rose-coloured flowers. At a 

 greater elevation I met with a few fine ferns growing in dry 

 rocky places. One of these was a beautiful Adiatitum {A. si- 

 nuosum, Gardn.), with large sinuated leaflets, the curious Cas- 

 sebeera pinnata, Kaulf, and two species of Notholcena. Near 

 the summit the clefts of the rocks are full of a beautiful suflru- 

 ticose Achimenes {A. rupestris, Gardn.), but of which I only 

 found a single specimen in flower. In clefts of the rocks on the 

 summit itself I found another curious little Gesneraceous plant 

 in flower, a species of Tapina ( T. villosa, Gardn.), and two 

 beautiful little ferns, both of which proved to be new genera. 

 They both belong to the same tribe as Anetuia, and one of them, 

 which grows flat on the rocks, and not larger than a crown-piece, 

 I have published a figure and description of in the first volume 

 of Hooker's London Journal of Botany, under tlie name of Tro- 



