406 GEOGRAPHICAL BOTANY. 



cannot be cultivated in this region, which is not exposed 

 to the direct rays of the sun ; potatoes grow abundantly. 



d. Lower forest region (5500' 2000'), is composed 

 of immense forests, savannahs, and marshes. Its humidity 

 is great throughout the year ; for even in the dry season 

 (May to September) thunderstorms are common. The 

 true rainy season begins in October, and lasts until 

 March or April. Mean temp. = 30; when the wind is 

 in the east, the nocturnal temperature sinks to 18*75. 

 This region forms the commencement of the primaeval 

 forests of the Amazon. 



Contributions to the Flora of Brazil : Moricarid, Plantes 

 nouvelles ou rares d'Amerique, livr. 8, Tab. 71-84 

 (Geneve, 1844, 4to) ; Naudin, Description de Genres nou- 

 veaux de Melastornacees (Ann. d. Sc. Nat., 1844, ii, 

 pp. 140-56) : Tulasnea, Brachyandra, Eriocnema, Auyus- 

 tinea, Stenodon, and Miocarpus ; Fischer and C. A. Meyer, 

 Aster ostigma, n. g. Aroideae (Bull. Petersb. iii, p. 148). 

 Miers, Triuris and Peltophyllwn, forming the new family 

 Triurideae, allied to the Juncagineae (Transact. Linn. Soc. 

 xix, pp. 77, 155) ; Sir W. Hooker and Wilson, Enume- 

 ration of the Mosses and Hepaticse collected in Brazil, 

 by G. Gardner (Lond. Journ. of Bot., 1844, pp. 149-67). 

 K. Miiller, Enumeration of the Mosses collected by 

 Gardner in Brazil (Bot. Zeit. 1844, p. 708), gives no 

 description of the new species, so that the preceding 

 publication, which is founded on more complete materials, 

 acquires priority as regards the nomenclature. 



Tenore has described a new Aristolochia, from Buenos 

 Ayres, which he obtained from Bonpland's collection of 

 seeds, and has taken this opportunity of republishing the 

 diagnosis of some plants derived from the same source, 

 and described in his catalogue of seeds (Rendiconto di 

 Napoli, 1842, pp. 345-8). 



Kittlitz's first plate represents the botanical character 

 of the coast of Valparaiso. It gives a view of one of the 

 steppes during the dry season, the bare soil of which 

 appears only to produce Cacti and shrubs with stellate 



