Natural-History Collectors. 5563 



decided exception : a road from Tijuca to the Botanical Gardens near 

 llio passes through coffee plantations for three miles up to the head 

 of the valley, and then descends through virgin forest towards the sea- 

 coast to the gardens. The part of this road that runs through the 

 forest is so full of insect-life, that of itself it will well repay a week's visit 

 to Tijuca; and this suggests one rule, which, so far as our experience 

 goes, universally obtains : roads through, or the open sides of, virgin 

 forest are always good collecting- ground : cleared country, mil ho or 

 coffee plantations, even the second growth of timber, are seldom 

 profitable, often absolutely barren ; we have found everywhere that 

 this distinction holds good. In England fine green luxuriant bushes 

 by the road-side, coppices of wood fifteen or twenty years old, are ex- 

 cellent localities ; here such contain next to nothing, compared with 

 what may be found in virgin forests, places where the original growth 

 has never been touched by man. 



It is, however, in the Organ Mountains, richest in vegetation, most 

 lovely in scenery, most healthy in climate, that we have found the best 

 stations for the entomologist : such stations may of course be multiplied 

 indefinitely ; I notice two, both most excellent, accessible, and, so far 

 as we can learn, both up to this time almost unexplored : Constancia 

 is an excellent English boarding-house, kept by Mr. Heath, in the 

 heart of the Organ Mountains, two days' journey from the city in a 

 northerly direction ; and Presidencia as comfortable a home for the 

 English traveller, kept by Mr. Land, thirteen leagues from the city in 

 a north-west direction (three miles from the German colony Petropolis, 

 where the Emperor has his summer palace) ; both these, at altitudes 

 of about 3000 feet, are in the midst of primeval forest, and would 

 require for their examination months instead of days : I notice these 

 two, not to the exclusion of other equally profitable localities, but 

 because I know how much remains still to be discovered in each, and 

 at the same time that the traveller will in them be sure to meet with 

 English comforts and an English welcome. 



Paraihiba is a city three days' journey from Rio, on the Minas road : 

 it is healthy, although its situation is low and the heat intense. The 

 immediate neighbourhood is covered with large coffee and also rice 

 plantations, and consequently an entomological desert. At the time 

 of our visit the fine river was swollen with the recent rains, but doubt- 

 less its banks, during the dry season, would well repay research. 

 There are two tolerable hotels ; the Hotel Universal, kept by a 

 respectable Englishwoman is the best, but of course with only Bra- 



