The Bosque at Para 

 Norman Taylor 

 Brooklyn Botanic Garden 



This cit\- of two hundred thousand people who live almost 

 on the equator, has been quite literall\- rescued from the jungle. 

 The edge of the greatest rain-forest in the world still crowds in 

 upon the edge of the town where a man may step outside his 

 house into a hot steaming forest. Not in Rio de Janeiro, nor 

 Bahia nor in Pernambuco is there this feeling that the forest 

 all but submerges man's efforts to hold it in check, for the out- 

 skirts of these large Brazilian cities are fringed with immense 

 plantations of cotton, tobacco, sugar, rice and cocoa. 



But Para is very different. Once the capital of the rubber 

 world, and still the greatest seaport for Brazil-nuts, timber, 

 many oils and resins, and the relic of the rubber debacle, its 

 growth and prosperity were and are based upon the natural 

 products of the Amazon. None, but guarana and a trifling 

 amount of cocoa, both native farther up the valley, are culti- 

 vated. And men's minds, in the old days were centered upon 

 the vast w^ealth of the Amazonian forests, so that once the city 

 was established little effort was made at agriculture and the 

 forest was allowed to creep back to the very door yards of Para. 



Many years ago, long before the English Took Hevea hrasil- 

 iensis to the East where now ten times the amount of rubber 

 is produced than comes from the wild trees of the Amazon, 

 Para set aside a square kilometer of its jungle as a public park, — 

 The Bosque. All that was done now stands as a monument to 

 the foresight of its creator, and a relic of the prosperity that 

 may years hence come to Para again. Fences, benches, an 

 arbor or two and a few bridges, all of wood, are now in active 

 decay. Algae and mosses cover some of them, and fungi and 

 constant moisture and insects will soon make an end of such 

 structures as remain. 



While this decay may be deplorable from the point of view of 

 park management, the Bosque remains one of the most in- 

 teresting parks in the world. Not a plant is labelled, but no- 

 where in Brazil can the ordinary visitor see tropical vegeta- 

 tion so easily. Getting through the virgin forest is a task re- 

 quiring tremendous effort, and must be based upon relative 



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