158 FLORA OF BRAZIL. 
Contributions towards a Fiona or BRAZIL, being an enu- 
meration of a series of Collections of Plants, made in 
various parts of Brazil, from 1836 to 1841; with brief 
descriptions of the new Genera and Species.—By GEORGE 
GARDNER, Esa. 
An ardent desire to travel in some tropical country, and 
to collect its Botanical productions, led me, early in the year 
1836, to visit Brazil. Principally patronized in my under- 
taking by His Grace the late Duke of Bedford, and Sir 
William J. Hooker, I was also strongly recommended by 
them to make choice of the Brazilian Empire, as the country 
most likely to reward my researches with a rich harvest of 
new and rare vegetable productions. It is true that it had 
been frequently visited by several German and French natu- 
ralists; but no English one, with the exception of the in- 
trepid Burchell, had penetrated the interior; and large tracts, 
particularly in the north, still lay open as virgin fields for the 
investigations of some future traveller. To these, therefore, 
I was anxious to proceed. 
I trust to be able, ere long, to lay before the public, in 
another form, a full account of my wanderings during the 
period of my absence from England; but, in the mean time; 
it may not be improper to give a rapid sketch of them in 
this place, in connection with my Botanical labours. 
The first five months, then, of my residence in Brazib 
were devoted to rambles in the neighbourhood of Rio dé 
Janeiro. Frequent visits were made to the mountains, which 
are al covered with dense virgin forests—to the humi 
vallies—to the swampy tracts which lie to the north of the 
city—to the sea-shores, and to the islands in the bay. From 
this district, my collections amount to upwards of 400 spe 
cies. The next six months were spent in the Organ moun- 
tains, about sixty miles distant from the city of Rio. The 
highest peaks of this chain are among the most elevated in 
Brazil, reaching to nearly 7000 feet above the level of the 
sea. These peaks I was the first to scale, and the number 
