TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 241 



the forests, the beauty and majesty of which no 

 language can describe. If the eye turns fi-om the 

 proud forms of those ancient denizens of the forest 

 to the more humble and lower which clothe the 

 ground with a rich verdure, it is delighted with 

 the splendour and gay variety of the flowers. The 

 purple blossoms of the rhexia, profuse clusters of 

 the melastoma, myrtles and eugenia* ; the deli- 

 cate foliage of many rubiaceae and ardisiaef with 

 their pretty flowers blended with the singularly 

 formed leaves of the theophrasta ; the conchocar- 

 pus ; the reed-like dwarf palms t ; the brilliant 

 spadix of the costus 5 the ragged hedges of the 

 maranta §, from which a squamous fern rises ; 

 magnificent stiftia ; thorny solana; large flowering 

 gardenias and coutarea 1| entwined with garlands 

 of mikania and bignonia ; the far-spreading shoots 



* Rhexia princeps, grandiflora, holosericea Humb. ; Mela- 

 stoma tomentosa, lutescens, mucronata Humlb. ; Myrtus splen- 

 dens, disticha, lineata Sw. ; Eugenia Mini, gujanensis, Cumete 

 Aubl. 



f Tetraraerium occidentale G. ; Nonatelia paniculata, Paga- 

 mea gujanensis; CofFea paniculata Aubl.; Duhamelia patens L., 

 chrysantha Sw. ; Ardisia tinifolia, parasitica Sw. 



X Theophrasta longifolia Jacq. ; Conchocarpus raacrophyllus 

 Mik. ; Geonoma simplicifrons, pinnatifrons W., pauciflora nob. 



§ Costus laevis R. P., spiralis Rose. ; Maranta gracilis, obli- 

 qua Rudge, arundinacea L. 



II Stiftia chrysantha Mik. ; Solanum violaceum, micranthum 

 Lara., violaceum Jacq. paniculatum L., Balbisii Dun., chloran- 

 thum Spr. ; Gardenia arraata Sw. ; Solena gracilis Rudge ; Cou- 

 tarea speciosa Aubl. 



VOL. I. R 



