305 



ttuiperalure far exceeding that in which any of their species have 

 liitherto been known to exist." 



" Far different is the vegetation of the Savanas. The ground, being 

 level or slightly undulated, is clothed during the greater part of the 

 year with a turf of brilliant green ; groups of trees rise here and there j 

 silvery streams, herds of cattle, and the isolated huts of the natives 

 enliven a scene, over which the absence of palms and tree-ferns 

 throws almost an European character, giving the whole more the ap- 

 pearance of an English park than that of a tract of land in tropical 

 America." 



The following extracts are from Mr. Spruce's letter to Mr. Ben- 

 tham : — 



" The specimens now sent are chiefly of plants of the ' Gapo ' (as 

 it is called in lingua geral), or lands inundated by the rivers and 

 lakes in winter, constituting a breadth of from twenty yards to several 

 miles, according as the land is abruptly ascending or perfectly flat. 

 1 have got several more of the minute quasi-ephemeral plants, which 

 spring up as the water recedes. The shores of the large rivers pro- 

 duce scarcely any of these ; their waters beat on the sand with too 

 much violence to allow of such frail things existing there ; but by the 

 small inland lakes connected with the Tapajoz, and near the creeks at 

 the mouth of some of the igarapes, minute leafless utricularias, erio- 

 caulons, alismas, &c., cover the white sand in thousands. A Utricu- 

 laria, which yon will find under No. 1050 (U. uniflora, MS.), is surely 

 the simplest in its structure of all its family. Stems of the size of 

 an ordinary sewing-needle, fixed into the sand by a small cone of 

 radicles, without leaves, but with a minute tubular 2-lipped bract a 

 little below the flower, which is white and comparatively large, com- 

 plete the description of its outward aspect. I have often been struck 

 with the wonderful contrast in size which is presented here in both 

 the animal and vegetable world. Under a gigantic Castanheira, or a 

 Caryocar, may occasionally be seen an almost microscopic Cyj)eracea; 

 and the same lake which produces this fairy Utricularia, bears on its 

 bosom the queen of the waters, Victoria regia. Another Utricularia 

 (Coll. No. 1053, U. quinqueradiata, MS.) has a peculiarity of struc- 

 ture to me quite novel, though you may hav« met with it before. It 

 is a small species, with submerged stems and bladdery leaves, but 

 the pedicels, which are about two inches long, have about midway a 

 large horizontal involucre of five rays, resembling the spokes of a 

 wheel. This floats on the water, and supports the upper part of the 

 pedicel in an erect position ; the whole recalling a sort of floating 

 Vol. IV. 2 r 



