254 EELATION BETWEEN CLIMATE AMD VEGETATION. 



velties collected, especially on the mountains. Between the 

 higher mountain ranges, the country in this district is a beau- 

 tiful diversified one of hill and dale. The rounded hills are 

 covered with pastures, sometimes thinly wooded with small 

 trees, and beautiful flowering shrubs, intersected by small streams 

 of limpid water ; and in the hollows exist those patches of wood 

 already mentioned under the name of Capoes. jNIy longest 

 journey was to the summit of the Serra de Piedade, the highest 

 in Minas, with the exception of one in the Diamond district, but 

 which I did not visit ; and a list of the plants which I met with 

 on the way to it, and on its ascent and summit, will give a to- 

 lerable idea of the nature of the vegetation of this delightful 

 region. It was unfortunately the end of the dry season when I 

 arrived here, and consequently the time at which the fewest 

 number of plants of all kinds are in flower. Tlie rocks of this 

 part of the country consist of primitive clay-slates, and mica- 

 ceous schists, highly impregnated with iron — so rich, indeed, that 

 in many places they yield as much as from 60 to 90 per cent, 

 of the pure metal. The soil is in consequence of a very ferru- 

 ginous nature. The small trees that grow on the open hilly 

 campos are chiefly species of Styrax, Luhea, Kielmeyera, Myr- 

 tacece, Melastoinacece, Composite, Palicourea, Vochysia, Qualea, 

 Hirtella, &c. The shrubs here are Luxemburgias, Androme- 

 das, numerous Compositcp, Diplusodotis, Lantmias, Lippias, 

 Hyptides, MelastomacecE, &c. ; and the herbaceous plants species 

 of Lisianthus, Callopisma, Phyllanthus, Declieuxia, Grami- 

 necE, Eriocaulofi, &c. The trees in the Capoes consist chiefly 

 of Myrcia, Eugenia, Vochysia, higa, Weinman?iia, Uvaria, 

 Ati07ia, Styrax, Coccoloba, BuuJiinia, Laurus, &c. The first 

 part of the ascent of the serra 1 found covered with a grega- 

 rious species of Baccharis, and another of Lychnophora, while 

 the grassless stony surface of the ground was covered with nu- 

 merous Orchidece, one of them the beautiful y eWow L(slia which 

 I first met with in the Diamond country, and a very prickly 

 procumbent species of Cereus, while intermingled with these 

 grew numerous large water-bearing Tillandsias. At a greater 

 elevation a yellow-flowered Cassia, about three feet high, was 

 very common, as also various species of Gaylussacia, a Gual- 

 theria, several Malpighiaceous shrubs, a fine dwarf Styrax, a 

 small variety of Drymis Granatensis, numerous OrchideaB, but 

 few of them in flower, a few Ferns, Mosses, and Lupins. 



The upper part of the mountain is arid and rocky, the hollows 

 containing a few Melastomaceoiis shrubs, and the rocks tliem- 

 selves covered with Lichens, and numerous small kinds of Or- 

 chidece, such as species of Stelis, Pleurothallis, &c. Near the 

 summit there is a small church, which is kept by an old Mu- 



