288 RELATION BETWEEN CLIMATE AND VEGETATION 



some of the less frequented streets of the town with its large pale 

 yellow flowers, which only expand during the early part of the 

 day ; and, in the same situations, the large flowered Richardsonia 

 gra7idiJlora, Boerhaavia hirsuta, and Argemone mexicana. In 

 marshy places, which were beginning to be dried up, grew the 

 beautiful Pontedera paniculata, Hydrolea spinosa, and a small 

 purple flowered Amtnarmia. In spots which were either now 

 under cultivation, or had once been so, grew Elytraria tri- 

 dentata, a narrow-leaved Stachytarpheta, Angelonia pubescens, 

 Monnieria trifolia, a small Eriocaulon, several small Legumi- 

 nous plants, and Conoclinium prasiifolium, D. C. &c. Where the 

 ground was dry, and among bushes, I observed Hirtella 

 coriacea in great plenty and in full bloom, together with a small 

 Malpighia, Jatropha urens, and another species allied to J. gos- 

 sypiifolia, which sometimes attains the stature of a tree, and is 

 not unfrequently used for hedges. The Mimosa and other fences, 

 as about Rio, are here festooned with Malpighias, Bignonias, 

 Ipomceas, and Leguminous plants ; among the latter the Cow-itch 

 plant {Stizolobium urens) was the most abundant, and, mingled 

 in many places with a large species of Dodder (Cuscuta sp.), 

 which twines over the hedges with its long yellow cord-like 

 branches, and gives them a withered-like appearance. 



One day I walked to Olinda, the ancient capital, situated 

 about a league to the north of the town of Pernambuco. The 

 road is quite level, and much of it passes through waste and un- 

 cultivated land. A considerable portion of one side of it is 

 bounded by a large fresh-water lake, and some of the others by 

 3Iimosa hedges, in which grew in the greatest profusion a small- 

 leaved and small white-flowered Jasmine, which was delight- 

 fully fragrant, and a species of Securidaca covered with large 

 clusters of rich purple flowers. The road-side Avas gay with the 

 pale-yellow blossoms of Turnera trionijlora, and the delicate 

 pink heads of a Sensitive plant. The lake was fringed along its 

 margin with low shrubs, among which I observed Anona palus- 

 tris, Avicennia tomentosa and nitida, Laguncularia racemosa, 

 and a sub-arborescent kind of Caladium, while many parts of the 

 water were yellow with the flowers of Limnocharis Humboldtii, 

 and of a large species of Utricularia. Towards Olinda I was 

 delio^hted at findinsr the surface of the water covered with 

 thousands of the splendid white blossoms and broad floating 

 leaves of the fine Water lily Nymphcea ampla, D. C. At 

 Olinda there is a small provincial Botanic Garden, to the curator 

 of which I carried a letter from the President of Pernambuco. 

 Tlie curator, Dr. Serpa, since dead, gave demonstrations on 

 Botany to the students attending a law and theological Academy 

 which exists at Olinda. I found him an intelligent old man. 



