TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 303 



bushes and extensive tracts of verdure. The sin- 

 gularly formed brown flowers of the Jarinha (Aris- 

 tolochia ringens) and a white Ipomoea {Ipomcea 

 Krusensternii, Ledeb.), two gigantic flowers, chmb 

 over the hedges, which consist of several splendid 

 specimens of the family of melastroma, myrtles, 

 and euphorbia. The Ambrosia artemisitefolia, a 

 strand plant of Virginia and Carolina, is found in 

 several thick bushes on the shores of the Paraiba. 

 The plain, though partly very swampy, is one of 

 the most fruitful districts of S. Paulo. Tobacco 

 thrives particularly well, and the cultivation of it 

 is the chief occupation of the inhabitants of Lorena 

 and of the village of Guaratingueta, two leagues 

 distant, where we passed the night. As the mois- 

 ture and warmth are favourable to the separation 

 of each specific substance on the leaves of the 

 tobacco, on which their goodness chiefly depends, 

 the tobacco cultivated along the sea-coast, and in 

 the warmer valley of the Paraiba, known by the 

 name of tobacco da marinha, is preferred to the 

 more indifferent sorts of the mountain tobacco, 

 which is called tobacco da serra acima. But the 

 tobacco of the island of Saint Sesbastiao is prefer- 

 red in the country to all others, and is likewise ex- 

 ported from the province as snuff. The mode of 

 treating the leaves, which are gathered several 

 times in the year, is very simple. After they have 

 been dried in the air they are laid together in 

 bundles, or twisted in large rolls, which are one of 



