Chap. II. ROAD-SIDE VEGETATION. 45 



some remarks on the wonderful vegetation. The forest 

 is very similar on most of the low lands, and therefore 

 one description will do for all. 



On leaving the town we walked along a straight, 

 subm'ban road constructed above the level of the sur- 

 rounding land. It had low swampy gTound on each 

 side, built upon, however, and containing several spacious 

 rocinhas which were embowered in magnificent foliage. 

 Leaving the last of these, we arrived at a part where the 

 lofty forest towered up like a wall five or six yards from 

 the edge of the path to the height of, probably, 100 feet. 

 The tree trunks were only seen partially here and there, 

 nearly the whole frontage from ground to summit being- 

 covered with a diversified drapery of creeping plants, all 

 of the most vivid shades of green ; scarcely a flower 

 to be seen, except in some places a solitary scarlet 

 passion-flower set in the gTeen mantle like a star. The 

 low ground on the borders between the forest wall and 

 the road, Avas encumbered with a tangled mass of bushy 

 and shrubby vegetation, amongst which prickly mimosas 

 were very numerous covering the other bushes in the 

 same way as brambles do in England. Other dwarf 

 mimosas trailed along the ground close to the edge of 

 the road, shrinking at the slightest touch of the feet as 

 we passed by. Cassia trees, with their elegant pinnate 

 foliage and conspicuous yellow flowers, formed a great 

 proportion of the lower trees, and arborescent arums 

 gi'ew in gi'oups around the swampy hollows. Over the 

 whole fluttered a larger number of brilliantly-coloured 

 butterflies than we had yet seen ; some wholly orange 

 or yellow (Callidryas), others with excessively elongated 



