22 PARA. Chap. I. 



not peculiar to one zone, but is producible under any 

 climate where a number of species of a given genus lead 

 a flourishing existence. The ornamental dress is gene- 

 rally the property of one sex to the exclusion of the 

 other, and the cases of widest contrast between the two 

 are exhibited in those regions where life is generally 

 more active and prolific. All this points to the mutual 

 relations of the species, and especially to those between 

 the sexes, as having far more to do in the matter than 

 climate. 



In the gardens, numbers of fine showy butterfiies 

 were seen. There were two swallow-tailed species, 

 similar in colours to the English Papilio Machaon ; a 

 white Pieris (P. Monuste), and two or three species of 

 brimstone and orange coloured butterflies, which do not 

 belong, however, to the same genus as our English 

 species. In weedy places a beautiful butterfly, with 

 eye-like spots on its wings, was common, the Junonia 

 Lavinia, the only Amazonian species which is at all 

 nearly related to our Vanessas, the Admiral and Peacock 

 butterflies. One day we made our first acquaintance 

 with two of the most beautiful productions of natvu'e 

 in this department ; namely the Helicopis Cupido and 

 Endymion. A little beyond our house, one of the 

 narrow green lanes which I have already mentioned 

 diverged from the Monguba avenue, and led, between 

 enclosures oven'un with a profusion of creeping plants 

 and glorious flowers, down to a moist hollow, where 

 there was a public well in a picturesque nook, buried in 

 a grove of Mucaja palm-trees. On the tree-trunks, 

 walls, and palings, grew a great quantity of climbing 



