354 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [MAY 
although their trunks are similar in shape; and the columnar form of 
their trunks is more graceful than the rapidly tapering ones of the 
Sequoia, whose crowns in comparisonsuare as the Norway spruce to the 
cedar of Lebanon in picturesqueness. On the following day a second 
visit to this wonderful grove confirmed both Mr. Lathrop and me in 
the opinion that there are nowhere in the world more beautiful trees 
than these specimens of Couratari legalis (Myrtaceae). I believe there 
are very few such giants in Sao Paulo, and any botanist traveling in 
this state would be repaid by a visit to these trees, which have only 
been easily accessible to visitors for two years past. 
The coffee estate of Dr. Prado is equipped with modern machinery; 
and many signs of ingenuity in the arrangement of the drying floors, 
pulping machines, and utilization of dried parchment for fuel, indicate 
decided progress since the days when the whole berry was dried and 
the seed removed by a species of husker. 
No seed selection is practiced in the planting of the trees, and as 
yet all these coffee estates, like those of the East Indies, are composed 
of unselected seedlings, although it is an admitted fact that there is a 
great variation in the productive powers and other advantageous 
qualities of the different individuals. As yet no fertilizer save the 
refuse pulp is applied to the soil, although the latter is gradually 
becoming exhausted. 
With Brazilian coffee at the price it now holds in the New York 
market there is little money in coffee raising, and the time is near 
when more labor-saving machinery and improved economical methods 
of culture will necessarily be employed in order to make the business 
pay.—Davip G. Faircuitp, Agricultural Explorer of the U. S. 
Department of Agriculture. 


