336 NOTES OF A NATURALIST. 



tree and disappeared, never coming to claim the pay- 

 promised for his unaccomplished day's work. 



All delightful times come to an end, and, as I 

 resolved to visit Tijuca before departing from Brazil, 

 I quitted Petropolis on the morning of July 20, and 

 made my return to Rio amid brilliant sunshine, in 

 which the glorious scenery of the bay renewed its 

 indelible impression on my memory. In passing over 

 the tract of low land between Raiz da Serra and the 

 shore, partly overgrown by shrubs or small trees ten 

 or twelve feet in height, I found them covered with 

 masses of large flowers of the most brilliant purple 

 hue, where ten days before not a single flower had 

 been visible. The train halted for half a minute at 

 a solitary half-way house, and I was able to break oflf 

 a branch from the nearest plant. It belonged, as I 

 suspected, to the family oi Melastomacem, and is known 

 to botanists as Pleroma granulosum. of Don ; but one 

 seeing dried specimens in a European herbarium, 

 could form no conception of the gorgeous effect of 

 the masses of rich colour that were here displayed, 

 outshining the splendours of the Indian rhododendrons 

 now familiar to European eyes. I again found the 

 same species at Tijuca ; but the soil and situation 

 were, I suppose, less favourable, and the show of 

 bloom was neither so rich nor so abundant. 



I was told that the local name of this splendid 

 plant is quaresma, because it flowers in Lent, which 

 in Brazil falls in autumn ; but I afterwards ascertained 

 that the same name is given to several other species 

 of Melastomacecs having brilliant flowers, and it seems 

 improbable that the same species which I found 



