140 SOUTH AMERICA 



The broken ledges and bluffs of the tableland lie 

 fully open to Atlantic winds, of a monsoon type in the 

 north, but trade winds in the south. The proximity of 

 the sea, the modifying influence of the moisture, which 

 is fairly regular throughout the year, give the coast 

 sierra a hot and equable climate with an abundance 

 and constancy of rainfall. Hence the forest which 

 clothes its seaward slopes and the coastal strip extends 

 almost uninterruptedly from Pernambuco to Porto Alegre. 

 It preserves a tropical luxuriance far to the south of the 

 Tropics, and passes slowly to an impoverished type to- 

 wards its southern limit. It bears in the main the 

 stamp of the Amazon flora, but is somewhat reduced, 

 both in size and variety. Palms play a prominent part 

 in its composition, but lianas and epiphytes are less 

 varied and less strongly developed. The transition from 

 the purely equatorial to the attenuated tropical type is 

 so very gradual that no line can be drawn anywhere. 

 The coastal forest-belt of Brazil finds an equivalent in 

 many respects on the eastern edge of the African table- 

 land in a similar situation, but the African coastal forest- 

 belt is poorer, drier, and more broken : an exact replica 

 will be found in East Madagascar. The lower zone 

 of the hill-barrier, the richest in luxuriant palms, is 

 known for its Brazil- and jacaranda-woods ; the tem- 

 perate zone is marked by tree-ferns, alsophila and others. 



Through the breaches in the edge of the plateau the 

 forest is sometimes carried far inland and mixes with 

 the flora of the campo ; south of the Tropics the upper 

 belt contains araucarias. A portion of the coastal 

 forest-belt is now being used for tropical agriculture, 

 but the encroachments are so far limited, and the forest 

 still largely preserves its character of ' matto virgem ' 

 or virgin forest (igapii). 



