BRAZIL PROVINCE OF MINAS GERAES. 251 



been a little flooded. The truly aquatic Brazilian kinds are 

 those which, more or less, resemble our own in habit. Another 

 charming' shrub which I met with here was a species of the 

 beautiful genus Physocahjx, which belongs to the Scrophula- 

 riacece, and has large inflated scarlet calyxes. Composites both 

 shrubby and herbaceous were exceedingly abundant, and several 

 small kinds of Vellozia and Barbacenia, but almost all out of 

 flower, grew on rocky declivities. The only Orchideous plants 

 met with were two species of Lcel'ia growing on bare rocky 

 places, one with yellow, the other with purple blossoms. De- 

 scending from this serra, we again entered a flat country, but 

 considerably elevated above the Sertad to the west, and a journey 

 of five days brought us to Mendanha, a little village on the 

 banks of the Rio Jiquitinhonha, which is famous for the diamonds 

 that are found in it. Two days more brought us to the Ci- 

 dade Diamantina itself. Immediately on leaving Mendanha, 

 we ascended a high serra by a good but very steep path, by the 

 sides of which I found many novelties, among whicli may be 

 mentioned the following: — three curious kinds o^ Eriocaulon, 

 one of them a remarkable branched one, which I have made the 

 type of a new genus (^Cladocauloii), two species of Diplusodo?/, 

 several fine Melastomacece and Composites, a Piper with long 

 spikes and very large leaves, a Humirium, Lavradia mon- 

 tana, Mart., a pretty little shrub belonging to the natural order 

 Violets, a simple-leaved Lupin, a leafless Pliyllanthus, a 

 beautiful scarlet-flowered Andromeda, a Vacciniutn, a Ruhus, 

 a Physocahjx, c&c. From the top of this ascent to the city the 

 country is a flat elevated table-land, the vSerra de Itambe rising 

 to a great height above it, surrounded by numerous lower ones, all 

 as bare and arid as the mountains in the highlands of Scotland. 



A residence of about three weeks in the Diamond country 

 enabled me to make large additions to my Herbarium. Various 

 excursions were made in all directions to the valleys, the ravines, 

 and tiie mountain tops, every one of them yielding desirable 

 acquisitions. The more remarkable of these were as follows : — 

 a beautiful Luxcmburgia, several purple-flowered Vellozias, 

 one of them a stemless species with narrow leaves, very much 

 resembling Crocus vernus, Diplusodon rotiindif alius, and an- 

 other narrow-leaved species, two kinds of Lupin, one of them 

 a fine shrub about six feet high, with small silky entire leaves 

 and short spikes of blue flowers {^Lupinas parvifoliiis, Gardn.), 

 two species of Angelonia, one of them a suffruticose plant 

 with very large flowers, numerous Melastomacece, the Lavoi- 

 sierias and Marcetias being particularly handsome from their 

 elegant habit, small leaves, and large flowers, of many colours, 

 but rose is the most common ; several Barbacenias, a few curious 



s 2 



