118 
dese erra the branches ascending and frequently branched 
in a similar manner, forming a dense rounde b 
Darploigioy; the thin silvery outer layers readily peeling off 
transversely in narrow strips. The leaves are palmate, deeply 
cut into three, five or seven oblong-ovate lobes, smooth on both 
a pendulous capsule, about an inch in diameter, nearly globular, 
dry and hard, when ripe, containing three smooth : and polished 
yish yellow or brownish, variously mottled and 
splashed with pupplish black. The testa (or coat of the seed) is 
very hard and thick; the cotyledons are very thin, foliaceous, 
slightly cordate at the base; the endosperm oily but solid. 
doa — mes Manihot Glaz ziovii somewhat resembles the 
n fu 
grown, has a stem resembling a birch, * ‘and the outer tak comes 
off in the same way in thin silvery posting 
In 1876 Mr. Cross, who had bee Ies on behalf of the 
Government of India to collect ota and plants of india-rubber 
trees in South America, visited the Ceara region on the north east 
of Brazil, midway between the towns of Para ren Bahia. This is 
outside the A aes forest region of the Amazon valley, and is 
own as the Seríao or wilderness, extending | in A arent Eelt from 
the Paranahyba river tothe São Franci 
-Mr. Cross, in his Report to the ind Offiee in 1877 (p. 14) 
describes the flat country from Ceara, running back to the 
mountains, on which sd tree abounds, as manifestly Mm 
*a very dry arid climate for a considerable part of the year 
This is evident from the fact that the mandiocca and pha crops 
require to be irrigated. The rainy season is said to begin in 
November and end in May or June. Torrents of hd are then 
reported to fall for several days in succession, after which the 
weather moderates for a brief space. According to some state- 
casional years in h 
in general. The daily temperature on board the ship ranged 
from 82° to 85° F., but inland it is often probably 90°. The 
localities traversed "by me nowhere seemed to be elevated more 
than 200 feet above the sea." At Pacatuba, about 40 miles from 
Ceara, the actual place where the specimens were obtained, “ the 
Cue forest was tolerably high, but the sparse, small, foliage did 
ot afford much shade from the fierce rays of the sun. The soil 
ferns, mosses eng Me plants." In another place, somewhat 
further from yi od traveller, shortly after entering the 
png forest, une a large tract of land a by 
immense masses of grey irihite: some of which might be fifty 
