MISSION OF COLLECTOR TO BRAZIL. 45 



called the ^' Serra do Mar," which stretches in a north-east direc- 

 tiou from the coast a little south of Itagoahy, increasing in ele- 

 vation as it goes until it again begins to decline on the curious 

 pipes of the Organ Mountains. 



The hills on the north side of the road are richly wooded, and 

 they are often very precipitous. Far away up their rugged steeps 

 may here and there be seen, in strong contrast to the surround-" 

 ing dark green foliage, a mass of brightest crimson, each being a 

 large tree festooned by the gem of these woods, the b.eautiful 

 Bougainvillea, 



July 17th. — Went out this morning to look through some of 

 the w^ooded hills I passed yesterday. On the way out I collected 

 specimens of No. 32 [Stiftia chrysantlid)^ an orange-flowered 

 Composite, common in all the woods here. It is a favourite 

 plant of the humming-birds. 



July 18^7i^.-— Returned to the same woods this morning, but 

 during a long ramble I met with nothing that would be likely to' 

 be of any use at home. 



July IQth. — Continued my exploration of the same range of 

 hills. Along the side of. the range, though hidden in many 

 places by the thick vegetation, runs a perpendicular face of rock, 

 on the shelves of which I found what appears a species of Orchid 

 (P. 8),* with large fleshy roots, which spread among the leaf-mould 

 accumulated in these situations ; the leaves are all radical, and 

 are longitudinally marked with four or five broad silvery marks. 

 A variety of this (P, 9), or perhaps anotlier species, has its leaves 

 irregularly spotted with silver. In these forests are many largo 

 trees of the kind mentioned by Dr. Gardener as being called the 

 ** Buttress tree/' from the numerous thin plates which slope out- 

 ward from the trunk at a height of about 10 feet to the ground 

 where they are often several feet broad. There are also some of 

 the silk cotton trees mentioned by that writer. The Cecropias^ 

 C. peltata and C. ^^aZwi^^a, are seldom seen here ; but they 

 abound in the forests higher up the Serra, where their large white 

 leaves give quite a variegated appearance. The Ferns, also, arc 

 plentiful in the higher forest, but are seldom seen at a lower' 



altitude than lOOO feet. 



July 20th. — The low ground adjoining the rivej: Santa Anna 

 may be, or rather is, divided into three kinds : — first, the dry, 

 which is covered with shinibs of various kinds, grass, and tall 



* P. prefixed to a number is the mark used by Mr. Weir to indicate tbat he 

 had no dried specimens of the plant. 



