468 The Naturalist Brazilian Expedition. (May, ) 
same sandstone extends northward almost to the limits of Santa 
Catharina. From the position of the beds there can be little 
doubt that they lie above the coal rocks of Sao Jeronymo, but 
beyond this I know nothing of their age. Careful search was 
made for fossils but without success. 
The Monte Negro is a singular cliff-crowned hill about 800 
feet high, lying near the river-shore about two miles south of the 
village; it derives its name from the somber color of its forest- 
covered sides when seen against the open campos. This hill is 
composed of a singular dark porphyritic rock, originally an erup- 
tive mass which cut through the sandstone; by the denudation 
of the latter it has been left standing like a tower, the upper paft 
rising perpendicularly, while the base, covered with talus, slopes 
away steeply to the plain. Other hills in the vicinity are formed 
of the same rock, or of basalt; where these occur in low, damp 
places the decomposition has sometimes given rise to agates like 
those of Sao Jeronymo. 
The flora of the country around São João is exceedingly rich. 
My wife, to whom the botanical collections were relegated, dè 
voted herself especially to ferns, gathering no less than 135 di 
tinct species! Among these were four or five tree-ferns, ĉ 
many very large brakes. The fachinal forest contained a m 
set of dry, stiff-looking species; others grew on the branches 
trunks of trees and in shady ravines. But by far the richest 
lecting places were the sandstone cliffs. Where streams fell : 
these they often presented magnificent pictures, great ti rocks l 
mingling with giant brakes, and lesser species carpeting the 
or hanging in fairy curtains from some projectin 
of the species take root at the ends, and we 
“ walking-fern,” which was regularly propagated i 
The settlers speak of over fifty kinds of excellent tim 
n this way. 
forest, and there are probably three times as many less many 4 
species. I made a collection of about seventy-five kinds, 
of which were equal in beauty to the finest cabine 
in the United States. With the present increasing , 
ornamental work, it is hardly possible that these fine 
woods should be long neglected. 
Our collections, both of vertebrates and inve 
1 Two hundred and fifty species have been collected at Rio de Janeiro 
more than at any other one point in the world. 
g ledge. Many 
found one tri J 
perin the 
t woods used : 
brat 
SO SS RD Sa Mase toes ME ae E 
doing Oh cea 
