TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 



241 



the forests, the beauty and majesty of which no 

 language can describe. If the eye turns from the 

 proud forms of those ancient denizens of the forest 

 to the more humble and lower which clothe the 

 ground with a rich verdure, it is delighted with 

 the splendour and gay variety of the flowers. The 

 purple blossoms of the rhexia, profuse clusters of 

 the melastoma, myrtles and eugenia* ; the deli- 

 cate foliage of many rubiaceae and ardisiaef with 

 their pretty flowers blended with the singularly 

 formed leaves of the theophrasta ; the conchocar- 

 pus ; the reed-like, dwarf palms t; the brilliant 

 spadix of the costus ; the ragged hedges of the 

 maranta §, from which a squamous fern rises ; 

 magnificent stiftia; thorny solana; large flowering 

 gardenias and coutarea || entwined with garlands 

 of mikania and bignonia ; the far-spreading shoots 



* Rhexia princeps, grandiflora, holosericea Humb. ; Mela- 

 stoma tomentosa, lutescens, mucronata Humb. ; Myrtus splen- 

 dens, disticha, lineata Sw. ; Eugenia Mini, gujanensis, Cumete 

 Aubl. 



f Tetramerium occidentale G. ; Nonatelia paniculata, Paga- 

 mea gujanensis ; CofFea paniculata Aubl. ; Duhamelia patens L., 

 chrysantha Sw. ; Ardisia tinifolia, parasitica Sw. 



:j: Theophrasta longifolia Jacq. ; Conchocarpus macrophyllus 

 Mik. ; Geonoma siraplicifrons, pinnatifrons W^., pauciflora nob. 



§ Costus laevis R. P., spiralis Rose. ; Maranta gracilis, obli- 

 qua Rudge, arundinacea L. 



II Stiftia chrysantha Mik. ; Solanum violaceum, micranthum 

 Lam., violaceum Jacq. paniculatum L., Balbisii Dun., chloran- 

 thum Spr. ; Gardenia armata Sw. ; Solena gracilis Rudge ; Cou- 

 tarea speciosa Aubl. 



VOL. I. R 



