292 LETTERS FROM COLLECTORS. 



feet above tlie level of the sea. He sajs one miglit often fancy that 

 thej saw artificial alleys planted upon the crest of the mountains. 

 But small forests are also found in the deepest hollows of the 

 valleys, and he was surprised to meet on the route from Ohosaka 

 to Jedo thickets of these two species, -which surmounted^ like 

 laughing oases, the marshes of the rice plains. Also the shores 

 of the south-east of the great lake Buwaka were surrounded by a 

 border of Pines, Elders, and Willows. 



It furnishes an excellent "wood for building, but on account of 

 the rarity of large trunks one cannot make so much use of it as 

 of the wood of some other Conifei-s, for example, the Crfjptomeria 

 japonicay Betiiiospora ohtuscty &c. 



At the root of the tree grows a species of agaric called 

 Matsulake, namely, Agaricns Pud, ^Yhich they commend highly 

 for its delicious taste. 



/■ 



XXXY.— LETTERS FROM COLLECTORS. 



I. — Fkom Mb. Weib, Collector in Sovth Brazil. 



CampiDus, Marclt 7, ^S^'-^; 



SiK, — I have just returned to Caiapinas from an excursion into the interior^ 

 vhere I hare examined a great extent of the Tirgin forest along the course of 

 the rirer Tiete, and also large portions of the immense campos whioh confine 

 these forests to the immediate neighbourhood of the river and its tributaries. 

 The "weather during almost the whole of the time since I wrote last has been 

 very unfavourable ; the whole of the month of January was very wet, as also 

 the first half of February was wet ; and during the last week of the former 

 month and the first of the latter it rained incessantly and heavily every tlay. 



The excessive rains having caused a great landslip in the Serra between 

 Santos and St. Paul's, about two miles of the road between the two places 

 have been carried away, so that all the traffic has now to be carried on by an 

 old disused road which is almost perpendicular. The president of the pro- 

 vince has issued an order to the effect that no one shall be permitted to go 

 down the Serra after 12 o'clock, or to come up before that hour of the day. 

 The railway has also suffered much damage, one iron bridge which had just 

 been erected was completely destroyed by the floods. 



For the last three weeks the w^eather has been somewhat better, and it ■was 



my intention to have gone on to Santos, taking aloDg with me the plants I 



have already collected, and collecting others on the way I have formerly 



marked for the purpose ; but the last two days have again been wet, and if the 



ruin continues, I will not be able to do so, as the balk of the plants I have to 



send aie Cattleyas and a few other Orchids. However, I still hope to be able 



to send them by the packet which leaves Rio Janeiio on the Sth or 9th of 

 Apnl. 



The Cattleyas, although they are not of the very be^t species, will, I trust, be 

 nsetiil, especially as Mr. Eyles writes for quantities of Orchids to give away. 



m7^ 1 .^/ ^^^ *^^^^ plants, and also a few seeds to send. 



The dried plants which I will send home will give some idea of what I have 

 seen during my excursion into the interior. Perhaps the showiest of all tltc 



