TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 



285 



and beautiful. The members of the families of 

 the melastoma, the crotons, malpighias, the corn- 

 flowers, and thick-stemmed large-flowering lilies 

 are particularly numerous, and characteristic of 

 this and other quartz- si ate rocks. In the swampy 

 pastures, and on the grassy margin of a deep pool 

 enclosed by rich-flowering shrubs, there are the 

 strangest forms of hydroctylons, droseras, andro- 

 medas, gaultherias, utricularias, sauvagesias, eri- 

 caulons, &c. On the first day, we gathered near 

 a hundred kinds of plants before unknown to us ; 

 and though mountainous districts are always poor 

 in animals, our collection of the species cerambyx, 

 buprestis, particularly the Buprestis tricolor, semi- 

 striatus nob., and humming-birds of the most various 

 kinds, was very ample. In the evening, when return- 

 ing from our excursions, a new pleasure awaited us, 

 when, from the terrace before the convent, we saw 

 the bright disk of the moon rise above the moun- 

 tain, or the serene sky gradually illuminated with 

 the constellations of the southern firmament. The 

 * call of the vesper bell in the romantically beautiful 

 mountain valley awakened in our souls a mixture 

 of the most soothing sensations, uniting the recol- 

 lection of our distant country with the enjoyment 

 of the beauties which surrounded us. 



We reluctantly quitted this paradise after a stay 

 of two days, and ascended the chief peak of the 

 mountain in order to descend on the east side to 

 Inficionado. This road, too, offered, at every step. 



