392 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1926 
de Urca to the summit. This enormous block of dark brown granite 
is 380 meters high. The perpendicular west side is bare for more 
than half its height. Toward the summit small bromeliads and 
grasses cling to the rock, the aggressive intruder, capim gordura, 
being the most abundant. The clouds that hang around this isolated 
peak supply moisture for a surprisingly dense vegetation. The sum- 
mit is fairly covered with vegetation, a dense colony of Paspalum 
coryphaeum, masses of a sterile bamboo, Olyra micrantha, the largest 
of the olyras, reaching a height of three to four meters, a beautiful 
large-flowered bean (Phaseolus grandiflorus) and tall composites, 
occupy the summit and the rocks just below, while trees and vines 
form dense thickets on the eastern face, extending nearly to the very 
summit. 
From the summit there is a wide view out to sea, over the city, 
and up the bay. This island-dotted sheet of opalescent water, with 
the blue peaks of the Serra do Mar rising beyond it, is enchanting. 
The most striking peak is called Dedo de Deus, the finger of God, 
from the resemblance to the uplifted forefinger of a closed hand, so 
common a feature in images of Christ. 
I had letters to officials at the Jardim Botanico and received many 
courtesies from them. Miss Maria Bandeira, educated in England 
and the daughter of a prominent physician at Rio de Janeiro, who is 
working on mosses at the Jardim, was a delightful companion on my 
first full day on Corcovado. We took an early train (cog-road) to 
the summit and walked down to Paineiras, no great distance, the 
collecting being so good. At the summit, 720 meters altitude, the 
pretty little international, Poa annua, greeted me, as it did at sea 
level the first minute I set foot on European soil two years before. 
Corcovado is the “type locality” for a large number of grasses, and 
from Paspalum obtusifolium Raddi (now referred to Awonopus) and 
P. corcovadense Raddi at the summit, to Olyra glaberrima Raddi at 
480 meters, they still lived where they were discovered over a cen- 
tury ago, as well as many since described by Nees and by Hackel 
from this beautiful mountain. I spent several more days on Cor- 
covado, along the Aqueduct Trail, beloved of Martius, and up and 
down the jungly slopes or rocky cliffs. 
At this time the quaresma (a species of 7’ibouchina) was in bloom, 
and masses of richest rose-purple glowed on the slopes. These gor- 
geous trees are called guaresma, which means Lent, because the trees 
bloom during the lenten season. But I saw different species of it, 
trees and shrubs, in bloom in various places until May. At this 
time the city was aglow with Cassia fistula, its pendent clusters of 
golden flowers a foot long. 
Through the kindness of Dr. Campos Porto, Miss Bandeira and I 
were able to visit Itatiaia, the great mountain that rises where the 
