BRAZILIAN REGIONS. 



27 



were observed to predominate. Coarsely-pinnated leaves were here 

 and there met with ; but the delicate feathery foliage of the Acacia 

 tribe proved extremely rare. Plants of the most diverse and unex- 

 pected affinity were met with woody-stemmed, according to the spe- 

 cies forming vines, shrubs, or trees. Remarkable differences from the 

 forest of Northern climates were found in the trunks of certain kinds 

 of large trees being armed with stout prickles ; in the thin board-like 

 buttresses widely-projecting at the base of a lofty species of Ficm ; 

 and in the growing leaves of plants being sometimes coated, in moist 

 shady places, with mosses and lichens. 



I met with but a single example of a climbing tree; that is, of a 

 vine whose trunk enlarging with age becomes tree-like, maintaining, 

 however, the inclined position, in contact with its original support. 

 Lofty-climbing vines, passing from one tree-top to another, were very 

 seldom seen; yet the scandent Bauhinias were not altogether absent; 

 and a ribbon-shaped undulated woody stem was also met with, per- 

 haps belonging to this genus. In one instance, a stout woody vine had 

 formed a network of coils around a slender tree, as though strangling 

 it, having in the meantime acquired sufficient rigidity to be self-sup- 

 porting. Woody vines of more humble growth were in vast variety; 

 abounding, like the sJirubs, chiefly on the border of woods and in 

 other situations exposed to the sun. 



The display of epidendric plants in the Brazilian forest is very 

 striking ; and especially, the Bromelias in great variety, together with 

 the Tillandsias, and the less frequent epidendric Cactacece. Epiden- 

 dric Ferns, as in many other Tropical countries, were in profusion, and 

 occasionally Peperomias were intermingled ; but epidendric OrcJiidacece 

 seemed comparatively rare, though possibly in greater abundance high 

 up and out of sight in the tree-tops. Genuine epidendric Aracece were 

 also met with ; and in one instance the "cipo d'imbo," — long cord-like 

 radicles hanging nearly to the ground and supposed " to belong to an 

 Araceous plant," but their origin among the tree-tops proved too dis- 

 tant to be traced out by the eye. In general, it was observed, that 

 the rough-barked and oldest trees were most encumbered with epiden- 

 dric plants ; while among other smooth-barked trees, the Cecropias 

 seemed entirely free from their lodgements. 



Of plants growing on the ground, true annuals were hardly to be 

 met with ; the Cyperacece, grasses, and ferns were in general normal ; 

 but of other herhaceous pdants, many were strangely unlike those of 



