Cuap. VIII. TREES OF THE CAMPOS. I9l 
localities, distils in a similar way an oil of the most vecherché fragrance. 
The yield, however, is very small. The native women esteem it highly 
as ascent.. To obtain a supply of the precious liquid, large strips of 
bark are loosened and pieces of cotton left in soak underneath. By 
visiting the tree daily, and pressing the oil from the cotton. a small 
phial containing about an ounce may be filled in the course of a month. 
One of the most singular of the vegetable productions of the campos 
is the Sticu-tiba tree (Plumieria phagedzenica). It grows in the greatest 
luxuriance in the driest parts, and with its long, glossy, dark-green 
leaves, fresh and succulent even in the most arid seasons, and white 
jasmine-like flowers, forms the greatest decoration of these solitary 
places. The bark, leaves, and leaf-stalks, yield a copious supply of 
milky sap, which the natives use very generally as plaster in local in- 
flammation, laying the liquid on the skin with a brush, and covering 
the place with cotton. I have known it to work a cure in many cases ; 
but, perhaps, the good effect is attributable to the animal heat drawn 
to the place by the pad of cotton. The milk flows most freely after the 
occasional heavy rains in the intervals between the dry and wet seasons ; 
it then spurts out with great force from any part of the tree if hacked 
with a knife in passing. 
The appearance of the campos changes very much according to the 
season. ‘There is not that grand uniformity of aspect throughout the 
year which is observed in the virgin forest, and which makes a deeper 
impression on the naturalist the longer he remains in this country. The 
seasons in this part of the Amazons region are sharply contrasted, but 
the difference is not so great as in some tropical countries where, during 
the dry monsoon, insects and reptiles <estivate, and the trees simul- 
taneously shed their leaves. As the dry season advances (August, 
September), the grass on the campos withers, and the shrubby vegetation 
near the town becomes a mass of parched yellow stubble. The period, 
however, is not one of general torpidity or repose for anirnal or vegetable 
life. Birds certainly are not so numerous as in the wet season, but 
some kinds remain and lay their eggs at this time—for instance, the 
ground doves (Chamepelia). The trees retain their verdure through- 
out, and many of them flower in the dry months. Lizards do not 
become torpid, and insects are seen both in the larva and the perfect 
states, showing that the aridity of the climate has not a general influence 
onthe development of the species. Some kinds of butterflies, especially 
the little hair-streaks (Thecle), whose larve feed on the trees, make 
their appearance only when the dry season is at its height. The land 
molluscs of the district are the only animals which estivate; they are 
found in clusters, Bulimi and Helices, concealed in hollow trees, the 
mouths of their shells closed by a film of mucus. The fine weather 
breaks up often with great suddenness about the beginning of February. 
Violent squalls from the west, or the opposite direction to the trade- 
wind, then occur. They give very little warning, and the first generally 
catches the people unprepared. They fall in the night, and blowing 
directly into the harbour, with the first gust sweep all vessels from their 
anchorage ; in a few minutes a mass of canoes, large and small, in- 
cluding schooners of fifty tons burthen, are clashing together, pell-mell 
