Insects. 2841 



months, I hear has had his last collection refused, at Liverpool, for 

 the freight ! Grasses are few, some peculiar, found in the small 

 patches of marshy campos : I shall dry specimens of all I find. Ferns 

 are numerous, but all small. You scarcely see a flower in the forest 

 except of Mimosas, Melastomas, Ingas, and a few lofty forest-trees : 

 some few magnificent flowers are found on the banks of rivers, be- 

 longing to forest trees. The potato does not grow wild here : I am 

 told that when first planted from seed a fair crop is obtained from it ; 

 but that afterwards it runs sweet, like the native sweet potato. 

 Many Solanums grow wild in cleared grounds, some form monstrously 

 ugly trees ; but they have plenty of substitutes for the potato here ; 

 the best, I think, is the sweet Mandiocca (Manihot Aypi) a large fari- 

 naceous root. Farinha de Mandiocca [M. utilissima), a most nutri- 

 tious food, is here just now very cheap, Is. Id. for 64 fts., each pound 

 takes 2 fbs. of water, and is equal to 3 lbs. of flour. 



" You say you have filled five large boxes of Lepidoptera by your 

 season's collecting so far; I assure you it is more than I can do in an 

 equal time : of course I no longer take a few of the commonest species 

 — without them, some dozen or so altogether — I do not average more 

 in six hours collecting, than forty specimens ; but then they will be of 

 thirty different species : and a second day, I may take fifteen or 

 twenty species different from those of yesterday, and so forth ; it is 

 besides arduous work, and I have to walk half a mile in the heat of 

 the day in returning home. I have not yet skinned many birds. 



" The climate remains the same; only, being now the height of the 

 dry season, we have only a shower occasionally. I am copying a 

 register of the thermometer, barometer, and rain-guage, kept here by an 

 American merchant for two or three years. The lowest temperature 

 known has been 72°, the highest, 92° ; the mean, about 80° for many 

 years. The quantity of rain, for the rainiest month this year, is 

 14-487 in. ! The number of fine days each year, about ninety-five. 

 Ague is rather prevalent just now, but the irregular habits of the peo- 

 ple make it worse. I do not expect to give you in England an idea 

 of the exceeding beauty and healthfulness of the climate : a pity such 

 a country should be in possession of such an ignoble and demoralized 

 race." 



H. W. Bates. 

 (To be continued). 



