BRAZILIAN REGIONS. 



31 



tliacetB. Having thus disposed of tlie negative character of the vege- 

 table growth, we are prepared for an account of what meets the eye 

 of the observer. 



CoMPOSiTioisr OF THE VEGETABLE GROWTH. Probably, in no other part 

 of America, or of the globe, is there such a variety and abundance of 

 Melastomacece and Bromeliacece as in the country around Rio Janeiro. 

 These are the dominant and characteristic Tribes ; but on more 

 thorough examination, two-thirds of the mass of vegetable growth 

 seemed made up of six Families of plants, in nearly equal propor- 

 tions, yet occurring in the following order of frequency : 



1. Filices, or ferns. As in many other luxuriant forest regions, 

 ferns were everywhere conspicuous, on the trunks and branches of 

 trees, on the ground beneath within their shade, also in sunlit open- 

 ings, and on exposed precipitous rocks. Tree-ferns, ornamental and 

 of palm-like outline, were frequent in the forest, and in consideraljle 

 variety; bat the species all of moderate height, in no instance ex- 

 ceeding twenty feet ; one species, growing twelve feet high, had the 

 trunk unusually stout for this Tribe of plants, being exactly double 

 the size of the human body. 



2. Melastomacece. In the present condition of the country, changed 

 by the removal in great part of the primeval forest, the Melasto- 

 maceas have become almost as abundant as the ferns. The species 

 are very generally shrubs, thriving under exposure to the sun and to 

 moisture, so that swampy places are filled with them ; the display at 

 the same time of showy purple flowers having procured for them the 

 expressive though in some respects objectionable name of "Rhododen- 

 drons." Two or three of the species formed trees of medium size, 

 forty to fifty feet high ; the largest one seen having with a spreading 

 summit the trunk full two feet in diameter. Herbaceous species were 

 rare, but not altogether wanting. In all, some forty species of Melas- 

 tomacea3 were met with, belonging to several genera, and differing very 

 much in the size and showiness of the flowers : these were observed to 

 be invariably purple, more or less deep, according to the species, and 

 varying besides in tint; in some species inclining to blue, in others 

 rose-colored, and in others again so pale as hardly to be distinguish- 

 able from white. The berries of certain species were found to be 

 edible, and although insipid, in the absence of all other kinds of fruit 

 in the Brazilian forest, proved refreshing. 



3. Rubiaceoe. Of diversified aspect, according to the genera, and 



