346 
“The intelligence you communicated 
respecting the good sale of my Muse: Bri- 
tannici is highly gratifying to me, and I 
am well aware that my success is owing to 
your favourable notice of this little work. 
Pray get my name put down as a subscriber 
to Mr. Bentham's work on the Scrophula- 
riaceeé ; and excuse my troubling you with 
a request to have my numbers of it sent 
as early as convenient. I am glad to hear 
that De Candolle has completed his fifth 
volume, as such a work on the Composite 
will be peculiarly useful to me in this 
country, where the woody species of this 
NaturalOrder are very numerous. Any 
other cheap and portable botanical books 
I will also thank you to procure for me. A 
good work on the Ferns is a great deside- 
ratum, and if it could be brought out in an 
8vo. volume, would surely answer. The 
descriptions of this tribe in Sprengel are 
so meagre, that I often am at a loss to 
make out the species, and many Brazilian 
Ferns do not seem to be noticed there 
at all. 
** You will perceive that the amount of 
each parcel is not marked outside. My 
reason for this is, because Government 
charges an ad valorem duty of 7 per cent. 
on all exported produce of this country ; 
and as I was at a loss to fix a price on 
the first case of living plants which I sent 
home, I left the officers to do so, and as 
the value they set on it was very low, I 
mean to make them estimate these also. 
* I have paid all possible attention to 
my specimens, both as regards pressure 
and frequent change of papers, and yet 
they are far from being what I could wish. 
* As the Organ Mountains lie at the 
head of the Bay of Rio Janeiro, about half 
the distance thither is accomplished by 
water, and the latter half must be perform- 
ed on the back of mules, three of which 
animals I have already ordered to be at 
the landing-place prior to my arrival; two 
for conveying my luggage, and one for 
myself. Two English merchants, who are 
going to spend the Christmas holidays 
with their families, will accompany me. 
“ Having said thus much on my future 
BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 
plans, I proceed to give you some a 
getation. But as an eternal summer reigns 
in this happy climate, and as almost every — 
plant has its own season for the production — 
of its flowers, every month is characterized 
by a different Flora. Consequently, a re- — 
sidence but of a few months cannot be ex- _ 
pected to afford more than a very partial | 
knowledge of its vegetable riches. 7 
“ During the first few weeks, my ram- — 
bles were confined to the shores, the val- — 
leys, and the low- wooded hills in the vici- — 
nity of the city. In exploring the shores, — 
I found the vegetation to vary, as might | 
be expected, according to the nature of - 
the soil, which towards the East end of the 
Bay, where it is muddy, produces thick - 
plantations of Rhizophora Mangle and l 
Avicennia tomentosa, growing quite into 
the sea. There also, but on the more ele- 
vated parts, Anacardium occidentale »- 
found. South of the city the shore bie ; 
ormed of loose white sand, covered with j 
large patches of Convolvulus Pes capre, — 
whose long-rooting shoots bind together 
the soil much in the same way as those e 
Elymus arenarius, and other creeping į 
glaucous-leaved Acicarpha spathulata 
throws out its spreading branches, wal 
amid these, growing almost into the sot 
there is great abundance of Sophora lito- 
four or five feet, and 
the flowering season, 
of yellow blossoms. 
the Sophora, is the Pitanga (Myrtus p^ — 
dunculata, Linn. ex Spis et Mart. Itin. v. : 
l. p. 16), which has a fine ape 
when loaded with its crimson fruit, abou * 
the size of cherries. When the fruit P 
mature, it becomes nearly black, and 
then the delicious flavour of a strawberry 
but in its unripe state, the taste 1$ disagree 
ably acid, and much like turpentine. 
made into preserves by the 
d. 
; 
