BRAZILIAN REGIONS. 



67 



plants that we did not meet with elsewhere ; three of them flowering 

 trees whose branches happened to interlace, and three different species 

 of mistletoe, or Plioradendron ? 



The Boa Vista Peak, forming the Southwestern side of the Piedade 

 Gap, was ascended by Mr. Brackenridge and myself; and the summit 

 was found to be less pointed, while the trees growing on it did not 

 seem at all dwarfed, notwithstanding a good deal of exposure. 



At an intervening locality, on the crest of the main mountain 

 ridge visited from the residence of Padre Luiz, there seemed again to 

 be no decided change in the forest ; as to the height of the trees, or 

 the composition of the vegetable growth. But in neither of these 

 three excursions were we probably at a greater elevation than five 

 thousand feet. 



The highest Peak of the Organ Mountains, as pointed out and seen 

 from different directions, appeared to be more than seven thousand 

 feet in elevation. Mr. March informed me, that the English botanist, 

 Gardner, by following paths of the anta or tapir, succeeded in getting 

 within a few hundred feet of the summit ; amid " Vacciniums, a Viola, 

 and a vegetation resembling in several particulars that of temperate 

 climates." 



In the course of my botanical experience, I have often found genera 

 of temperate and cool climates traceable to mountains, even where 

 not occurring precisely on their summits. On reviewing, therefore, 

 our excursions in Brazil, I am inclined to regard some of the plants 

 we met with as having claims to be admitted into the mountain- 

 region : as, a Goodyera ; two species of Carex ; a Scutellaria; an ever- 

 green, small flowered Cerasus ; the frequent three species of 

 Sisyrincldum ; an Epilohium ; o, Fuchsia; a Galium ; a tall herbaceous 

 Rumex; two small herbaceous ^^^m'cm/js; a, Banuiicidus ; an example 

 of the Gentian Tribe in Lisiantlms ; a Mutisia ; an Alstroemeria ; the 

 scarlet-flowered Salvias ; and the Araucaria. 



Boreal Analogies. Of these genera, several will be observed to 

 be properly Northern ; as Cerasus, Eu^Jatorium proper, Erigeron, Vac- 

 cinium, Salvia, Hahenaria, Goodyera, Xyris perhaps, and Osmunda. 

 One remarkable instance of North American analogy was also met 

 with : 



Bogs, inundated with cool spring-water, and covered over with 

 Sphagnum, perpetually wet and sponge-like, preserve a very equable 

 temperature in the warmest climates. At the base of the Organ 



