Vegetable Kingdom in the Brazils. 37 



manifest itself in the vegetable kingdom ; and if plants, as indi- 

 cative of a general relation to the sun, be of importance in the 

 history of the earth, of its climates and countries, this is pecu- 

 liarly the case with America, where they are found either undis- 

 turbed by the influence of man, or triumphing over it. The 

 various circumstances affecting the vegetation in a great part of 

 South America, viewed under this aspect, may be an object not 

 imworthy of the attention of this naturalist ; and I venture, in 

 consequence, to draw a sketch of the physiognomy of the plants 

 in that part of Brazil which we ourselves had an opportunity of 

 visiting. 



The flourishing kingdom of Brazil comprehends almost a 

 third part of the whole South American continent. Washed by 

 the ocean for a length of many hundred miles, it opens, in 

 this wide space, numerous havens to friendly Europe. On the 

 south and north, two seas, as it were, of fresh water, the La 

 Plata and Amazons, form its boundaries. On the west it is sur- 

 rounded by the mighty tributary branches of these two streams, 

 the Paraguay and Madeira, the sources of which approach very 

 near to each other. Tlvis yet unmeasured land presents, in an 

 extent from 4° 18' nortli to 34° 55' south latitude, and from the 

 ocean to the meridian of 67° west longitude from Paris, a won- 

 derful variety of surface, being at one time elevated to stately 

 mountains, at another stretching out either as a level or hilly 

 country, covered with woods and fields — intersected by innu- 

 merable streams and branching rivers — watered by large lakes, 

 or changed into immense marshes by the overflowing of the 

 waters. It enjoys, however, everywhere the blessings of a 

 happy climate ; everywhere the riches of the tropics abound, 

 and the salutary abundance of milder latitudes. There the earth 

 is never benumbed by the breath of winter ; with the continual 

 vigour of youth, it sends forth, at the same time^ from its bosom, 

 the products of the autumn and of spring, and the vegetable 

 kingdom celebrates, as it were, in a perpetual hymn, the creative 

 power of the sun, by a thousand living forms, colours and odours. 



Whoever approaches Brazil from the sea, receives almost 

 every where these impressions of the majesty and grandeur of 

 tlie vegetation. Barren wastes of sand bound tlie ocean only 

 along a comparatively small part of the northern provinces, es- 



