42 MISSION OF COLLECTOR TO BRAZIL. 



■which destroys the leaves of the plant. It is a small leaf-mining 

 caterpillar ; there are generally several of them in a leaf, and eat 

 out the soft tissue till, no longer able to perform its function, 

 nature throws it off. The ravages of this pest are so extensive, 

 that in many large plantations there is scarcely a leaf left ou 

 the plants, and none are entirely free from it. The insect has 

 only made its appearance this last season, or if present in former, 

 it has never been so numerous as to be noticed, Sr. Leao would 

 not permit me to take my leave until I had dined, and he made 

 me promise to come back on the 28th of the month, and stay a 

 day or two with him. 



June 26^/i. — On a hill-side to the south-east of Brandao the 

 plants Nos, 6 (Heteropterys^ sp.) and 7 {Stigmaphyllon rotundi- 

 folmm) grow abundantly, they are both yellow flowered creepers, 

 and are very showy; No* 6 in particular, which produces its 

 flower in greater abundance than the other, and does not ramble 

 so much. Nos. 11 (Chameranthemuin BeyricJdi) and 13 (Eran- 

 themum verhmaceum) ^^ also grow here in shady places, both have 

 silvery blotches down the centre of their leaves. In a ravine at 

 the bottom of the hill, No. 20 occurs plentifully ; it is not in 

 flower, but the leaves are regularly striped along the midrib and 

 primary reins with white. It is a soft- wooded shrub and grows 

 about two or three feet high. Such plants as this from the dark 

 situation they grow in seldom flower, and the only way of sending 

 them home would be in a glass case, or they might perhaps reach 

 England alive packed in a close box amongst saw-dust. I will 

 try them and a few other things this way, especially as I have 

 now got as many Cattleyas as will fill a small packing case. Nos. 

 14 and 15 [Trichomanes Lttschnathianum), two pretty creeping 

 Ferns, I will try in the same way. They climb up the trees in the 

 damp parts of the forest, covering the lower parts of their trunks with 

 a drapery of delicate green. Nos. 21 {Asplenium mucronattim) 

 and 23 {Asplenhtm adictntoides) are also pretty Ferns, but are too 

 soft to send in this manner. 



June S7^7i.— During a long ramble to-day, I met with nothing 

 very remarkable. No. 19 {PaidUnia, sp.) is a fern-like creeper, 

 growing on high and bare parts of the hills. No. 24 is a Myrta- 

 ceous shrub, five or six feet high, ^vith abundance of pale white 

 blossoms ; and No. 23 {Franciscea Hopeana) a shrub three feet 

 high, with lilac-coloured salver-shaped flowers. 



* This amyed dead. 



^L 



