44 NOTES OF A BOTANIST CHAP. 



several trees and twiners, and the colours are 

 gayest and most varied in the months of July 

 and August. Then are scattered over the plain, 

 especially where the soil is sandy, dense posies of 

 the " Purple flower," a species of Physocalymma 

 (Lythraceae), and the less conspicuous ones of the 

 " Yellow flower" (Vochysia sp.) ; more sparingly is 

 seen mixed with these a larger mass of the orange 

 flowers of Vochysia ferruginea, and these are every- 

 where set off by white bunches of Myrtles and 

 Melastomas. Near the Shillicaio rise here and 

 there magnificent trees of Ama-sisa (Erythrina 

 amasisa, Sp.), which have been spared by the axe 

 of the first settlers some of them as much as 

 80 or 100 feet high, and twice in the year, at 

 intervals of six months, clad with large flame- 

 coloured or vermilion flowers, sometimes with no 

 accompaniment of leaves and sometimes with 

 young leaves of a most delicate green just 

 appearing. I have been delighted to walk by the 

 Shillicaio at sunset and observe the tracery of the 

 crown of the Ama-sisa, with its copious red tassels, 

 projected on the pale blue eastern sky, when the 

 flowers of almost every tree showed a different 

 shade of yellow-red, not, however, paling to yellow 

 on the one hand or deepening to scarlet on the 

 other. It continues in flower nearly two months, 

 and before it has well done flowering the ripened 

 follicular pods splitting up on one side only, and 

 with the two or three seeds still adhering, begin to 

 strew the ground. The trunk is more or less closely 

 beset with shortly conical, sharply cusped prickles. 1 



1 On this account it is constantly selected by the sagacious troopial (Cassiats 

 iftcronotus] for its long pensile nests ; though, as ,if doubting that this were 



