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18 NOTES OF A BOTANIST CHAP. 



very scanty ; yet there are even a few scattered 

 trees, of humble growth, some of which grow down 

 to the very beach. The species that most abound 

 are a stout branched Cactus (Cereus peruvianus], 

 orowincr to ;o feet, truncheons of whose trunk serve 



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the people for stools; and a beautiful Jacquinia 

 (J. arniillaris] of the same height. The latter has 

 somewhat the aspect of the Holly, from the dark 

 green, rigid, spiny-pointed leaves ; but the flowers, 

 which are very numerous, are of a deep vermilion 

 and very sweet-scented ; and they are succeeded by- 

 fruits resembling small oranges in colour and shape, 

 although uneatable and narcotic, and used by the 

 inhabitants for stupefying fish. 1 When I arrived 

 here, with the exception of these and a few other 

 shrubby trees, and of a winding green line of 

 mangroves (marking the course of a creek), the 

 whole country had the aspect of a barren sandy 

 waste. Even the range of hills that runs parallel 

 to the coast at a distance of one to two leagues 

 showed only brown and withered shrubs. But 

 when it began to rain a change came o'er the face 

 of nature more sudden and surprising than even 

 that of a bright spring succeeding a severe winter 

 in Europe. "The desert blossomed like the rose." 

 The sandy plains became in a few days clad with 

 verdure : curious and pretty grasses, most of which 

 I had not even seen elsewhere ; flowering annuals, 

 including a Polygala not prettier than the Milk- 

 wort of our English heaths, but of nobler growth 

 (i to 2 feet) and bearing long spikes of roseate 

 flowers ; patches of apparently dead brush, scattered 



1 The genus jacquinia belongs to the Alyrsinacere, an order allied to the 

 primroses. ED. 



