IN rERXAMBUCO. 203 



have no doubt, could be produced in England, as the tree is 

 small. 



4. Gomphia Fieldingiana, Gardn. MSS., in Herb, n., 958. 

 A most beautiful shrub, also growing in very sandy places ; be- 

 sides this there are at least two other fine species of the same 

 genus. 



5 Norantea, sp. A very remarkable and truly beautiful 

 climbing shrub. The spikes of crimson bracts and flowers are 

 often upwards of 2 feet long. It grows in rather moist sandy 

 places. 



No. 4. — The Vegetation of Alagoas and the Rio de San Fran- 

 cisco. By George Gardner, Esq., F.L.S,, Director of the 

 Koyal Botanic Gardens, Ceylon. 



Till the proper season should arrive for the undertaking of a 

 long journey I purposed to make into the interior, I determined 

 to spend a few weeks in the small province of Alagoas, situated 

 between that of Pernambuco and the Rio de Saii Francisco. A 

 voyage of about 1 50 miles southward along the coast, in an open 

 canoe, brought me to the town of Maceio. The country be- 

 tween the two places is rather flat, and generally wooded with 

 small trees and shrubs, but the effects of the dry season on them 

 had been so great, that although we slept on shore every night, 

 I added but little to my collections. The country around Ma- 

 ceio is undulating but not high, and the ridges of low hills reach 

 close to the sea. In a walk which I took shortly after my 

 arrival, two or three miles to the N.E. of the town, over a flat 

 sandy tract which lies between the sea and the rising ground, 

 and not unlike the country around Pernambuco, I found many 

 plants that were new to me. There were no large trees on it ; 

 the largest being the Cashew {Anacardium occidentale), Sapin- 

 dus saponaria, and a few others, which not being in flower, I 

 could not determine. The shrubs consisted oiBauhinias, Myrtle- 

 blooms, Marcetia taxifolia, D. C, a Humiriicm, a new species of 

 Eschweilera, equally handsome with that found at Pernambuco, 

 but with larger leaves, flowers, and fruit, several Coccolobas, &c. 

 The herbaceous vegetation was rather scant, consisting of a few 

 grasses, a fine Eriocaulon, an Epidendrum, a Dichorizandra, 

 a Sphcerotheca, Herpestes Salzmanni, Benth., Stemodia verticil- 

 lata. Link., and Acanthospermum hispidum, D. C. The low 

 hills were covered with low shrubs, consisting of some fine spe- 

 cies of Myrcia, Gomphias, Miconia holosericea, D.C., Schmi- 

 delia Icevis, St. Hil., Evea Braziliensis, Cham., and several 

 species of the genera Solanum, Erythroxylum, Croton, Dio- 

 spyros, &.C. Here also grew Stachytarpheta hirsutissimay 



