IN DIFFERENT COUNTBIES. 509 



days begin to lengthen, completes the destruction of the few 

 stragglers that are left, the Karroo again sinks into aridity and 

 desolation, and the desert reappears. What succulents survive 

 are covered with a grey crust, and derive their nourishment 

 only from the air. In other parts of the Cape of Good Hope 

 the mean range of the thermometer in winter is 48° to 93°, 

 with cold rain, while that of the summer is from 55° to 96°, 

 with dry days and damp nights. 



In the Canaries we have the season of growth from Novem- 

 ber to March, when rains fall like those of Europe, and the 

 mean temperature is 66°; the period of rest is April to 

 October, when it never rains, and the mean temperature is 73°. 



In Brazil the seasons are thus described by Mr. Cald- 

 cleugh : — " The summer begins about the months of October 

 or November, and lasts until March or April. This is the wet 

 season ; but the rains by no means descend from morniug till 

 night, as in some other tropical countries, but commence 

 generally every afternoon about four or five o'clock with a 

 thunderstorm. The heaviness of the rain can only be con- 

 ceived by those who have been in these latitudes. This fall 

 naturally arrests the sea breeze, and the succeeding night is 

 dark and cloudy. Formerly these diurnal rains came on with 

 such regularity that it was usual, in forming parties of 

 pleasure, to arrange whether they should take place before or 

 after the storm. During this period of the year there is 

 seldom, if ever, a deposition of dew. From April until 

 September very little rain falls ; vegetation almost stops, and, 

 to the eye of every one who has not just arrived from Europe, 

 a wintry appearance is discernible. The land and sea breezes 

 do not succeed each other with the same regularity, and are, 

 besides, more frequently disturbed by violent gusts from the 

 S. W., imagined to be the tails of those destructive winds, the 

 Pamperos of the Eiver Plate. The nights are beautifully clear; 

 Venus casts a shadow, and the southern constellations are seen 

 in all their beauty. The dews, as might be expected, are at 

 this season very copious." {Brande's Journal, No. 27. p. 41.) 



Tte periods of rest and activity in the vegetable world are, however, 

 not always evident. The vegetation of the primitive forests of Brazil, 



