58 TIEMAIIKS AND oriNIONS. 



missed in the forests the beautiful form of the aca- 

 cia-trees, with tlieir variously feathered leaves. The 

 numerous species of the siHquose plants adopt 

 here all imaginable forms. The fern-plants, and 

 particularly the arborescent kinds, the Lia?ieSf 

 the Orchidea'j plants which, in Brazil, form airy 

 gardens on the tops of the trees, seem to be 

 very few in number, or to be entirely want- 

 ing, like the Cactus or the Bromeliacece. Nature 

 bears a different and more tranquil character. The 

 kinds of palm are more numerous than at Saint 

 Catharine's. Several of these are insignificant, the 

 slender prickly calamus is probably the most re- 

 markable. Among the Aroidea?, the Pathos scan- 

 detiSj with its grass-like leaves, narrowed in the 

 middle, creeping up the branches of the trees, is 

 very striking by its form. 



On the low grounds and banks of the rivulets 

 grows the elegant bamboo-cane *, whose slender 

 halms shooting forth in thick bushes, lightly glide 

 over each other, sounding to the play of the wind, 

 and a close thicket offers the richest variety of 

 plants. 



On the plains, forests alternate with savannahs, 



* The halm of the bamboo shoots up, in one rainy season, 

 to the greatest height it can attain, turns woody the following 

 year, and spreads out side-branches without growing higher. 

 The young shoot is eatable, like that of the asparagus. Some 

 of the kinds described by Loureiro are native here ; we saw 

 the blossom of none. 



