218 POPULAR GEOGRAPHY OF PLANTS. 



always painful to become desenchante on a more intimate 

 acquaintance with either people or places. But Rio de 

 Janeiro, '.-'th its narrow and dirty streets and its gay shops 

 with plate-glass windows, which, if it were not for the 

 crowds of toiling Negroes, would possess quite a European 

 appearance, is so far from improving on a closer acquaint- 

 ance, that we turn with greater longing to sights which we 

 know will never disappoint us, and pleasures which can 

 never be exhausted ; nor are we without reasons which con- 

 sole us for making our journey in imagination only, when 

 we remember the dangers and fatigue which would have to 

 be endured in its actual performance. 



Following the guides under whose direction we have 

 placed ourselves, we must first make acquaintance with 

 some of the tropical plants which are to be found in abun- 

 dance along the side of the great aqueduct, six miles in 

 length, which supplies the city with water, and with the 

 forest vegetation of the Corcovado Mountain (some two 

 miles distant from the city), -before we undertake our much- 

 desired expedition to the Organ Mountains, which are part 

 of a mountain-range situated about sixty miles to the north 

 of Bio ; so named from a fancied resemblance in their form 

 to the pipes of an organ. 



