54 RIO JANEIRO. 
inland country. Plants are more dense and succulent, species and 
tribes have little of a local nature ; yet particular kinds of palms and 
bamboos are found in separate groups on the top of the Organ 
Mountains, but this is only a slight exception to the general rule, 
which nature seems to have adopted in the distribution of plants 
oyer the country. This character strikes the observer forcibly in the 
Cecropias, Czesalpinia braziliensis, and several Melastomas, which are 
rarely seen in pairs. 
The Botanic Garden is in a flat situation, backed by a high ridge 
of mountainous land. In front, is a lake of brackish watelr, which 
forms a considerable bay, and communicates with the sea by a 
narrow inlet. The entrance to the garden has a mean appearance, 
and does not correspond with the broad promenades within, which 
are planted with trees on each side. The whole is laid out in the 
old Dutch style, seats, arbours, and houses are cut out of Arbor 
vita3 {Thuja orientalis). Terrestrial Orchidea? are cultivated in 
earthen vases placed in rows in the herbaceous ground, which 
appeared to have been once planted after the Jussieuean, or natural 
system, but is now somewhat out of order. In the centre of the 
garden was a small fountain, near which grew some fine specimens 
of the splendid Bougainvillea bracteatea, in full flower. There is 
also a fine collection of Orchide®, which are cultivated on decayed 
trunks of trees. The bread-fruit trees {Artocarpus incisa, and in- 
tegrifolia) succeed very well. There were some trees of both 
kinds forty feet high, and the fruit of the latter as large as an ordi- 
nary watermelon. The rows of trees along the sides of the walks 
were principally Apeiba hispida, Theobroma cacao, several kinds 
ol Lauraceae and Myrtacese, with a species of Casuarina, introduced 
from New South Wales. Several groups of bamboos had a good 
effect among the other trees, but their stems bore evidence of a 
propensity to the carving of names, as a memento of the dis- 
tinguished persons' visit. Among them I was glad to see the names 
of many Europeans, which serves to prove that this habit does not 
exist among Americans alone. Here an attempt was made some 
years since to introduce the tea-plant, with natives of China to 
cultivate it. The plantation appeared to our botanical gentlemen in 
a sickly state. 
The great and distinctive mark of Rio, is its slaves and slavery. 
It seems fairly branded with this evil, and the thoughts cannot 
