1900] BRIEFER ARTICLES 127 
The characteristic feature of Rio vegetation is made by the avenues 
of royal palms. Although there are avenues of this palm in Java, 
Hawaii, Jamaica, Trinidad, and Ceylon, in none are they really 
impressive. The first leaf-sheath in young plants is always objection- 
ably prominent. The immense avenues of Rio are so tall that these 
leaf-sheaths are not noticeable. No more beautiful avenues of palms are 
imaginable than those of the Botanic Gardens and a double avenue 
near Botafogo. 
The Botanic Garden lies an hour’s train ride from the center of the 
city, in a locality unfortunately infested with yellow fever. Its most 
courteous director, Dr. Rodrigues, has made a special study of palms, 
and his collections are very tastefully arranged through the garden. 
Although containing many rare specimens, this collection does not 
compare in any respect with that in the gardens of Java or Ceylon. 
Owing to its situation so far from comfortable hotels and its lack of 
laboratory facilities, the garden will be a difficult place in which to 
prosecute botanical studies. In the winter months the danger from 
yellow fever would quite prohibit its being used except for a few hours 
a day, as no stranger who values his life risks living in the city, but 
spends his nights at least either at Petropolis, three and one half hours 
away, or at Tijuaca, much nearer, but not so free from fever. 
‘The charm of Rio, botanically, is in its surroundings. Petropolis, 
a city of twenty thousand inhabitants, lies at an altitude of three thou- 
sand feet among the mountains across the bay from Rio, and is reached 
by two hours of ferryboat and railway travel. During the season of 
yellow fever, from January to June, over two hundred passengers, 
mostly business men, make this trip twice a day, leaving Petropolis 
re morning and returning in the evening. As the danger from 
ee ee 
Spending a night in Rj ae p 
night in Rio during its summer season. 
- oe i es is richer is panoramic effect than any sna 
ne ees: 6 in the tropics, surpassing the famous railway see 
bie end Poet to Caracas in Venezuela, Columbo to Kandy in ra 
vegetation m Padang to Padang Pandjang in west Sumatra. e 
bali ‘es a) the shore of the harbor, through which the railway 
- <a les that of the dense swamps characteristic of the eee 
infested whe paradise for the collector of fresh water alge, but 
with malaria. These low lands are covered with a tangled 
