220 POPULAR GEOGRAPHY OF PLANTS. 



namely the Mortea Northiana, which was first found by Sir 

 Joseph Banks, when he touched at Rio de Janeiro in com- 

 pany with Captain Cook. On the shores, where the rich 

 soil has been washed away, and has left the bare granite ex- 

 posed, we see thick groups of Aloes and of a prickly Cactus, 

 the stiff leafless stems of which make a singular contrast 

 with the varied forms of the forest. The huts of the country 

 people are, for the most part, situated along the coast, and 

 surrounded with plantations of Spanish Potatoes and Water 

 Melons, with Guavas, Oranges, Jessamines, Roses, etc. 



It is with but little hope of success that this attempt is 

 made to sketch the beauty of the Brazilian flora. How can 

 such feeble strokes as these convey any idea of it, when 

 those who have made actual acquaintance with it, speak of 

 its being " scarcely to be expected that a residence of but a 

 few months can afford more than a very partial notion of 

 the vegetable riches of that happy climate, where eternal 

 spring and summer reign, and where, as almost every plant 

 has its own season for the production of its flowers, every 

 month is characterized by a different flora" ? 



Even situations which are remarkable for a very small 

 quantity of soil, rocks, for instance, on which scarcely a 

 trace of earth is to be observed, are covered, owing to the 



