250 POPULAR GEOGRAPHY OF PLANTS. 



ing country, owing to the beauty of these shrubs, is like 

 one vast flower-garden." 



It would be wearisome to detail the ever-recurring inter- 

 change which characterizes this part of the interior of 

 Brazil, of hilly grassy country destitute of trees, and high 

 serras, some of them " arid and desolate," whilst others are 

 covered with shrubs, such as those already mentioned, and 

 with occasional clumps of Vellozias. It would be endless 

 to tell of broad, thinly wooded valleys, on which the burn- 

 ing rays of the sun stream down with unmitigated power, 

 alternating with wooded or bushy campos. But though 

 it is impossible to enter into detail, it may safely be as- 

 serted that so beautiful is the general character of vege- 

 tation in this country, that even in the most unpromising 

 situations we are often agreeably surprised by some lovely 

 flower, hitherto unknown to us, springing up in our path, 

 or by the unexpected appearance of some old hothouse ac- 

 quaintance such for instance as the really beautiful Mutwa 

 campanulata, which we find growing on high land where 

 there are few plants of any kind to be met with : it is a 

 plant of the Composite family, beautiful both in form and 

 colour, and with a pretty peculiarity in the leaf, the midrib 

 being elongated and twisted into a curling tendril. 



