396 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1926 
sought Streptochaeta spicata, one of the strangest grasses known, 
with broad oval blades and slenderly conical spikelets hanging loose 
(at maturity) by fine spiral awns to the top of the slender axis, a 
sort of Maypole-dance arrangement. On this trail I saw for the first 
time the rain tree (Samanea Saman) raining, the mist falling in a 
stream of sunlight striking through the trees. 
Pico de Tijuca is the highest peak in the vicinity of Rio de 
Janeiro. It was cloudy or misty most of the day, glimpses of the 
city or the bay occasionally showing below us. At the top of the 
steep granite Pico was a bamboo (Chusquea sclerophylla) in flower, 
rich reward for the climb, and Panicum latissimum again, in a 
mossy thicket, as well as many lesser grasses. 
February 19 I left Rio de Janeiro on the early train for Juiz de 
Foéra in Minas Geraes. In the valley of Rio Parahyba, beyond the 
Serra do Mar, the silk-cotton trees (Ceiba sp.) were coming into 
bloom, forming masses of lovely pink on the mountain sides. These 
magnificent trees, one with great buttresses at the base, another with 
the trunk beset with conical spines, were blooming in Minas until 
the last of April. 
Juiz de Fora lies in the narrow flood plain of Rio Parahybuna. 
Dense colonies of giant species of Paspalum and Panicum bordered 
the river. Their blades have edges like razors and hands and arms 
are slashed in collecting them. A golden-rod (Solidago microglossa) 
on the red clay slopes looked out of place in the tropics. 
This region is in the Zona de Matta or wooded country, the hills 
mostly covered with second-growth forests. The grass flora was very 
different from that before encountered and I remained a week, the 
guest of a family of American missionaries. 
Above the town rises a steep hill, Morro do Imperador, 975 meters 
high. At the summit is an image copied from the “ Christ of the 
Andes.” There is a road up the more sloping side, and a trail up 
the steep face. The trail is used by the devout for penitential pil- 
grimages. The town was celebrating carnival (before the beginning 
of Lent) with processions and noisy crowds. The processions looked 
like moving pictures of African dances, both in costumes and move- 
ments. They were led by gigantic black women (or men dressed as 
women). Juiz de Fora has about the same proportion of Negro blood 
as has Washington, but the whites have adopted African methods of 
jubilation. No doubt the trail up the peak was worn deeper during 
the weeks that followed. The sloping sides of the Morro afforded a 
good day’s botanizing. 
The next stop was at Barbacena, 1,120 meters altitude, just across 
the Serra de Mantiqueira. This was the beginning of the Zona de 
Campo, with high rolling hills covered with grasses, herbs, and com- 
