258 POPULAR GEOGRAPHY OF PLANTS. 



and a poverty of vegetation which equals, if it does not sur- 

 pass, the " miserable " character of that which we remember 

 on the western coast of South America. 



We have also a curiosity to touch at St. Helena on our 

 way thither, which lies nearly half-way between these two 

 great continents, that we may see what effect is produced 

 on vegetation when tropical heat is mitigated by the in- 

 fluence of the surrounding sea. 



We will therefore now retrace our steps through the 

 mining district to Rio de Janeiro ; not diverted from our 

 object by either gold or diamonds, though regretting a little 

 the havoc which has been occasioned in the search for gold, 

 by the turning up of the ground; and amused sometimes 

 in spite of ourselves, though saddened again by reflection, at 

 the curious sight we so often see, of a party of diamond- 

 washing Negroes with their wooden bowls, all sitting in a 

 row upon a bench in a shallow pond, above their ankles in 

 water ; narrowly watched all the time by an overseer who is 

 seated under a shelter which looks like a thatched parasol 

 or a magnified mushroom, and patiently consigning the trea- 

 sures which are to make others rich to the greedy bag of a 

 superintending director. 



Gladly we greet again the beautiful bay of Rio de Ja- 



