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of mosses, &c. Many of the trees have their trunks encircled by 

 twiners, the stems of which are often thicker than those they surround. 

 This is particularly the case with a kind of wild fig, called by the 

 Brazilians, Cipo Matador. It runs up the tree to which it has at- 

 tached itself, and at the distance of about every ten feet throws out 

 from each side a thick clasper, which curves round and closely en- 

 twines the other stem. As both the trees increase in size, the pres- 

 sure ultimately becomes so great that the supporting one dies from 

 the embrace of the parasite. There is another kind of wild fig-tree 

 with an enormous height and thickness of stem, to which the English 

 residents give the name of buttress-tree, from several large thin plates 

 which stand out from the bottom of the trunk. They begin to jut 

 out from the stem at the height of ten or twelve feet from the bottom, 

 and gradually increase in breadth till they reach the ground, where 

 they are connected with the large roots of the tree. At the surface 

 of the ground these plates are often five feet broad, and throughout 

 not more than a few inches thick. The various species of Laurus 

 form fine trees ; they flower in the months of April and May, at which 

 season the atmosphere is loaded with the rich perfume of their small 

 white blossoms. When their fruit is ripe it forms the principal food 

 of the Jacutinga (Penelope Jacuiingq, Spix), a fine large game bird. 

 The large Cassia? have a striking appearance when in flower; and, as 

 an almost equal number of large trees of Lasiandra Fontanesia, and 

 others of the Melastoma tribe are in bloom at the same time, the 

 forests are then almost one mass of yellow and purple from the abun- 

 dance of these flowers. Rising amid these, the pink-coloured flowers 

 of the Chorisia speciosa, a kind of silk cotton-tree, can be easily dis- 

 tinguished. It is also a large tree, with a stem covered with strong 

 prickles, from five to eight feet in circumference, unbranched to the 

 height of thirty or forty feet. The branches then form a nearly he- 

 mispherical top, which, when covered with its thousands of beautiful 

 large rose-coloured blossoms, has a striking effect when contrasted 

 with the masses of green, yellow and purple of the surrounding trees. 

 Many of these large trunks afford support to various species of climb- 

 ing and twining shrubs, belonging to the natural orders Bignoniaceae, 

 Composita?, Apocyneas and Leguminosae, the stems of which fre- 

 quently assume a very remarkable appearance. Several of them are 

 often twisted together, and dangle from the branches of the trees, like 

 large ropes, while others are flat and compressed, like belts: of the 

 latter description I have met with some six inches broad, and not 

 more than an inch thick. Two of the finest climbers are the beauti- 

 VOL. III. P 



