308 POPULAR GEOGRAPHY OF PLANTS. 



But however fertile the country may be near the banks 

 of the river, ' ' the greater portion of the interior of central 

 Brazil is of a desert nature;" "a dry arid tract/' from 

 which we turn in disappointment to seek for more pleasing 

 sights in the neighbourhood of the sea-coast. Even there 

 our road sometimes leads through marshy country, or, by- 

 way of contrast, through a dry sandy hollow, where not a 

 breath of air is to be felt, and where we are oppressed and 

 almost suffocated with the heat which is occasioned by 

 the reflection of the rays of the midday sun from the white 

 sand. 



The marshy tracts however are not without botanical 

 interest, for some of the pools we meet with there " are gay 

 with the yellow flowers of Limnanthemum Humboldtianum" 

 (of the Gentian tribe), a plant not unlike our own Villarsia, 

 or Fringed Bog-bean ; whilst others, " under the shade of 

 a thicket of giant Palms, are quite covered over with Pistia 

 stratiotes, a plant nearly related to the Duckweeds of Eng- 

 land, but of a much larger size." The water-plants in the 

 lakes are very beautiful. There is a lake near Olinda, the 

 surface of which is " covered with thousands of the splen- 

 did large white blossoms and broad floating leaves of a 

 Water Lily (Nymphaa ampla, DC.), and intermingled with 



