58 ON THE VEGETATION OF BRAZIL. 
Gardner tells us, he made the acquaintance and gained the friendship 
of a family that had already travelled in distant parts of South America, 
and who were devoted to pursuits similar to his own; in their company 
he made many excursions in the vicinities of Rio :— 
‘In order to present some general idea of the splendid scenery of 
the country, and the leading features of this part of Brazil, I will give 
an account of some of these excursions. ‘There is a path by the side 
of the great aqueduct, which has always been the favourite resort of 
naturalists who have visited Rio; and there is certainly no walk near 
the city so fruitful either in insects or plants. The following notes 
were made on the return from my first visit along the whole length of 
the aqueduct. After reaching the head of the Laranjeiras valley, 
which is about two miles in extent, the ascent becomes rather steep. 
At this time it was about nine A.M., and the rays of the sun, proceeding 
from a cloudless sky, were very powerful ; but a short distance brought 
us within the cool shade of the dense forest which skirts the sides of 
the Corcovado, and through which our path lay. In the valley we 
saw some very large trees of a thorny-stemmed Bombax, but they were 
then destitute both of leaves and flowers, nearly all the trees of this 
-tribe being deciduous. There we also passed under the shade of a very 
large solitary tree which overhangs the road, and is well known by the 
name of the Pao Grande. It is the Jequetiba of the Brazilians, and 
the Couratari legalis of Martius. Considerably further up, and on the 
banks of a small stream that descends from the mountain, we found 
several curious Dorstenias, and many delicate species of ferns. We 
also added here to our collections fine specimens of the tree-fern 
(Trichopteris excelsa), which was the first of the kind I had yet seen. 
The forests here exhibited all the characteristics of tropical vegetation. 
The rich black soil, which has been forming for centuries in the broad 
ravines from the decay of leaves, &c., is covered with herbaceous ferns, 
Dorstenias, Heliconias, Begonias, and other plants which love shade 
and humidity ; while above these rise the tall and graceful tree-ferns, 
and the noble palms, the large leaves of which tremble in the slightest 
breeze. But it is the gigantic forest trees themselves which produce 
the strongest impression on the mind of a stranger. How I felt the 
truth of the observation of Humboldt, that, when a traveller newly 
arrived from Europe penetrates for the first time into the forests of 
South America, nature presents itself to him under such an unexpected 
aspect that he can scarcely distinguish what most excites his admiration, 
the deep silence of those solitudes, the individual beauty and contrast of 
forms, or that vigour and freshness of vegetable life which characterize 
the climate of the tropics. What first claims attention is the great 
size of the trees, their thickness, and the height to which they rear 
their unbranched stems. ‘Then, in place of the few mosses and lichens 
which cover the trunks and boughs of the forest trees of temperate 
climes, here they are bearded from the roots to the very extremities of 
the smallest branches, with ferns, Aroidez, ‘Tillandsias, Cacti, Orchidex, 
Gesneriz, and other epiphytous plants. Besides these, many of the 
large trunks are encircled with the twining stems of Bignonias, and 
shrubs of similar habit, the branches of which frequently become thick, 
