﻿50 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. "/S 



huts. This is one of the oil grasses, introduced from the East Indies. 

 In the West Indies, the roots are used to scent clothing and to keep 

 moths away, but here it is used to thatch huts. The caju (cashew) is 

 everywhere, a beautiful wide-spreading tree, bearing multitudes of 

 fragrant small maroon flowers and fruit in all stages of development. 

 The wet meadows and stream borders offered the best botanizing. 

 Here were great Paspalums and Panicums, tangled with aroids, ferns, 

 and brush. A quaking bog yielded some little-known grasses. 



A trip was made to Bello Jardim, i86 kilometers to the west in 

 the Serra da Genipapo. at an altitude of 600 to 650 meters. The hills 

 are covered with scrub or low trees, the " caatinga," consisting of 

 mimosas, acacias, and thorny shrubs and semi-arborescent cactuses, 

 except where it has been cleared for planting. Ground is cleared by 

 burning, and cotton, sugarcane, castor plants, mandiocca, and tobacco 

 are planted, sometimes here and there among the shrubs or tussocks 

 of sedge that refused to burn. There seemed to be little or no cultiva- 

 tion. When a field becomes overgrown with weeds or brush it is 

 abandoned and a new place is burned, land being very cheap. The 

 result is that cultivated spots are scattered hit or miss through the 

 scrub, which is overgrazed by cattle, horses, donkeys, sheep, and 

 goats till only inedible shrubs and herbs, Jatropha, Capparis, and the 

 like, flourish. No forage crops are grown in the sertao (the interior 

 arid region) except for little patches of Para grass here and there 

 along a stream. In November the dry season load only begun, yet 

 every edible plant in the sertao seemed to have been consumed, and 

 there were still some eight months to endure before the rains. 



A second journey was made to Garanhuns, 850 meters high, in the 

 sertao to the southwest. The country here is much less barren, and 

 more progressive, with fairly good sugarcane fields, and with bul- 

 lock carts in common use. 



With two women missionaries, IVIrs. Chase visited Paulo Affonso 

 Falls in Rio Sao Francisco, about 150 miles from Garanhuns. These 

 falls are 610 feet in height, higher than Niagara and of greater 

 volume. The region had not before been visited by a botanist and 

 much was expected of it, but the desert extends to the vast river, 

 even the canyon walls being almost devoid of vegetation. 



The period from December 7 to January 5 was spent about Bahia. 

 in the sandy savannas and marshes to the north and in the hill coun- 

 try across the bay, about Cachoeiro and Feira Santa Anna. A trip 

 across the state to Joazeiro on Rio Sao Francisco was disappointing, 



