240 



TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 



duced by the trumpet tree * among the other lofty 

 forms of the forest. The smooth ash-grey stems 

 rise, sUghtly bending, to a considerable height, 

 and spread out at the top into verticillate branches 

 standing at right angles, which have at the extre- 

 mities large tufts of deeply lobated white leaves* 

 The contour of the tree appears to indicate at 

 once hardness and pliability, stiffness and elasticity, 

 and affords the painter a subject equally interest- 

 ing and difficult for the exercise of his pencil. 

 The flowering cgesalpinia t, the airy laurel, the 

 lofty geoffroeat, the soap trees with their shining 

 leaves, the slender Barbadoes cedar, the ormosia § 

 with its pennated leaves ; the tapia or garlic pear 

 tree, so called from the strong smell of its bark ; 

 the maina li, and a thousand not yef described trees 

 are mingled confusedly together, forming groups, 

 agreeably contrasted by the diversity of their 

 forms and tints. Here and there the dark crown 

 of a Chilian fir ^ among the lighter green appears 

 like a stranger amidst the natives of the tropics, 

 while the towering stems of the palms, with their 

 waving crowns, are an incomparable ornament of 



* Cecropia peltata, L. palmata, W. 



•f Caesalpinia brasiliensis, chinata, L. 



J GeofFrcea inermis, Sw., racemosa, Poir. violacea, P. 



§ Sapindus Saponaria, L.; Cedrela odorata, L. ; Ormosia dasy-. 

 carpa, coccinea, Jacks. 



II Crataeva Tapia, L., called by the Portuguese Pao d'alha . 

 Maina brasiliensis, Raddi. 



<[[ Araucaria imbricata, Pav. 



