TRAVELS IN BRAZIL 



213 



black and small white transverse bands, which is 

 erroneously supposed to be venomous, had been 

 dug up in the fields. In this moist tract we also 

 found a seps (Caryocanus, nob.) ; the m^eci^Cychrus 

 Arnica, nob. ; Prionus hieroglyphicus, nob. ; Biglo- 

 huliis rugosus, nob.; Buprestis quatuornotata, nob.; 

 Imatidium comutum, nob. ; and several singular slugs. 

 From this rural retreat, which lies close on the 

 declivity of the mountain, we had another magni- 

 ficent prospect of the bay and of its beautiful ver- 

 dant islands. The coffee trees were planted on the 

 sides of the hills bounding a narrow valley, the - 

 summits of which were crowned by the Brazilian 

 pine (^Araucaria imhricata), with its dark grotesque 

 branches extended like candelabras. In the sur- 

 rounding forests, and, as we were assured, even in 

 the neighbourhood of the plantation, there grows a 

 kind of bark, which, since several years, has been 

 exported under the name of Qulna do Rio {Coutarea 

 speciosa, A. ?), the efficacy of which in intermitting 

 fevers has been proved by experiments made by 

 physicians in Portugal. * It is true, that many, 

 especially quotidian fevers, pertinaciously resist the 

 effects of this bark, which has much fewer anti- 

 febrile qualities than the Peruvian ; it is, however, 

 preferable to many other sorts which come to Spain 

 from Peru mixed with the better kind. Perhaps 



* Journal de Coimbra, No. 35. part i. p. 235, and No. 38, 

 part i. p. 92. 



p 3 



