BRAZILIAN REGIONS. 



37 



the following eleven Families : — Big^ioniacem, in very great variety ; 

 chiefly luxuriant woody vines, conspicuous in all directions from their 

 foliage and large showy flowers, purple, yellow, or white, according 

 to the species. — GuttifercB, represented by a Glusia, growing along the 

 sea-coast, and by a few other fine ornamental trees of medium size. — 

 Meliacece, consisting of Guarea and other trees of the largest size, 

 whose presence was indicated by their fallen flowers in the forest ; 

 and of various shrubs, more or less arborescent : the flowers of all 

 the Meliaceous genera met with were white, or at most having a 

 tinge of green. — Passifloracece, abundant and various, and though 

 admired in our Northern green-houses, so lost amid the luxuriance 

 of the Brazilian forest growth, as to be generally looked upon as 

 mere weedy vines. — Scitaminacem, most of the species tall and showy, 

 and frequent in moist situations ; one species, observed on the banks 

 of the Rio Piabanha, being full sixteen feet high ; the Calathea 

 Zehrina, or "velvet plant," was met with in the environs of Rio Janeiro, 

 to all appearance indigenous in the forest. — Gactacem, a Tribe requi- 

 ring exposure to the sun and air, were chiefly represented in the 

 Interior by epidendric kinds, species of Epiphyllum and Rldpsalis ; 

 some of these were growing equally on exposed rocks ; while in more 

 than one instance I observed the long, branching, unsightly stems of 

 a Cereus fairly epidendric, and swinging in the air from a tree-top. — 

 GesneriacecB, herbaceous thick-stemmed plants, with coarse rugous foli- 

 age, and according to the species, more or less exclusively confined 

 to rocks; to which situation they seemed specially adapted by the 

 swollen tuberous base of the stem ; the flowers, more or less orna- 

 mental, were observed to be usually red, but in a few species yellowish 

 or greenish. — Apocynacece^ including one large shrub, with ornamental 

 foliage and white Nerium-like flowers ; also a variety of Echites-\\k.e. 

 woody vines, many of them ornamental. — Eutacece, including species 

 of Almeidea; and also of Zanthoxylum, and other genera not yet sepa- 

 rated from this Family — Tournefortece, in very considerable variety; 

 one of the species being a climbing shrub, and another a small tree 

 with brittle leaves. — Gonunelinacece, herbaceous and of humble stature, 

 but several of the species rendered conspicuous by bright-colored flow- 

 ers ; or in the exceptional instance of the Tradescantia fuscata, by the 

 reddish under-surface of the leaves. 



There yet remain Tribes of plants, some of them occurring abun- 



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