786 - ME. weir's journal. 



A2)ril Q^ith — ^TtJi. — Engaged in preparing and sending off 



boxes to England. 



April 2Sth. — Exploring some of the swampy jungle between 

 Santos and Cnbitab in search of plants of No, 63, the Cattleya, 

 which is found here on the trees in the jungle (probably C. 

 Loddigesii). It is not very abundant, there being only occa- 

 sional plants on the older trees. I met with about two dozen of 

 plants, which I have marked for collection hereafter. 



May 1st, — Got the plants on board at last early this morn- 

 ing, and left Santos for Mugii, the English station at the 

 foot of the Serra, where the railway begins the ascent. I 

 went up myself by way of the river in a canoe, and sent my mules 

 round by Cubitao. 



May ^nd to Qjh. — Heavy rain, and little done- 

 Mai/ 6^7?. — Arrived in Rio Grande this afternoon. The line 

 of railway runs through a swampy bottom all the way from the 

 t,op of the Serra to this place. The country generally is hilly, 

 and wooded with deep valleys, and often swampy plains, between 

 the hills. The trees are generally small and ai'e loaded with tons 

 of Bromeliaceous plants, Aroids, and Orchids. The Bromeliads, 

 however, are by far the most iiumerous and bulky. The species 

 which I intend to collect is frequent on the gnarled trees, the stems 

 of tree-ferns, and often on the half-rotten trunks of fallen trees ; 

 it9 foliage is strikingly beautiful, the ground colour being of a pale 

 green, curiously and brightly banded on both sides with dark 

 purplish hrown. I tliink it would make a very beautiful plant 

 for a vase, and will send home a quantity of it.'^ 



May 7th to 15th. — Ileavy rain, and everything flooded. 



May loth, — I was able to go out to-day, and have had a long 

 ramble over one of the wooded hills near the settlement. Thq 

 lower parts are still under water. On the trunks of the trees, in 

 the damp forest, here grow four or five species of Hymeno- 

 phyllum and Trichomanes ; very pretty, but it would be impos- 

 sible to send them home unless in glass cases ; their delicate 

 rhizomes would not stand being packed in a close box so long. 



I collected during the day specimens and a few seeds of No. 

 ^43, another splendid Melastomnd. It grows on the black peaty 

 soil common here round the edges of the marshes. In the drier 

 places it is past flowering, but where the soil is wet it is now in 

 full bloom. Its flowers are large and purple, most abundantly 



e se plants were all dead on arrival. 



