90 



[June, 



|JiFii|i j^cenepy, 



THE WILD FLOWERS OF PARA, 



THIRD PAPER. 



We have failed to notice many plants 

 which, though interesting to the botanist, 

 have no floral beauty ; of these there are 

 many hundred, and a large herbarium could 

 easily be filled; our enumeration is thus 

 rather of a selection than a collection. What 

 first attracts the notice of a new comer to 

 Para is the number of plants which he has 

 only seen in greenhouses growing here in the 

 open air. 



On the outskirts of the city bright Passion 

 flowers clamber over the trees in every 

 thicket ; they are usually of the species, 

 botanically, Tacsonia, with scarlet or crimson 

 flowers. They are very showy, but the plants 

 never give as many flowers as the same 

 species grown in our greenhouses. They 

 climb high, and as a climber left unpruned 

 seldom flowers until it has attained its full 

 growth, the blossoms are on the ends of 

 long rambling shoots, and are not produced 

 in profusion. Many a dark thicket is lighted 

 up by these showy flowers, whiclr; strange to 

 say, are never grown here in the gardens or 

 around the houses. The Brazilians, though 

 very fond of flowers, seem to have a distaste 

 for the beautiful flowers which grow wild, 

 and seldom cultivate them; but they grow 

 single Marigolds and Dahlias, and other 

 exotics far inferior in beauty. 



Of the true Passifloras one with a blue 

 flower is cultivated for the fruit, which is as 

 large as a small Musk-melon, of about the 

 same shape, and not unlike it in taste, being 

 very rich and sweet, and soon cloying the 

 appetite. This plant is grown on wide, flat 

 arbors, which it covers with a mass of light 

 green entire leaves, the fruit, in all stages of 

 development, hanging below on long pedun- 

 cles. The fruit of many of the wild species 

 of Tacsonia is also eaten under the general 

 name of " Maracaja." In size they vary from 

 that of a small Plum to that of a large 

 Peach ; the color of the skin is bright orange ; 

 this encloses a dry, white, spongy tissue, 

 which surrounds a mass of seeds, each of 

 which is enveloped in an acid pulp of pleas- 

 ant taste. 



Another family of climbers which we shall 

 find well represented on the Estrada de St. 

 Jose is the Trumpet-flower, botanically Te- 

 coma and Bignonia ; indeed, Brazil is the 

 home of an immense number of this genus, 

 some shrubs, some climbers, and others im- 

 mense trees. 



We find some which much resemble the 

 Trumpet-flower in cultivation in the United 

 States, generally natives of dry, sandy soil. 



These flowers are the favorite resort of a 

 large biting ant, and no sooner does one at- 

 tempt to gather them than he suffers for the 

 attempt. Often when about to smell a flower 

 one sees an ant with open mandibles, ready 

 to give his nose a warm reception. When an 

 ant once takes hold he never knows when to 

 let go, and often one may pull away the body 

 leaving the head still fast to the flesh. Ants 

 are the great nuisance of a tropical climate ; 

 in many species they swarm everywhere. To 

 the half-dozen kinds which live in the houses 

 one soon becomes accustomed ; but no 

 amount of familiarity can lead one to endure 



with resignation the biting red ants which 

 live in the gardens and fields, rendering gar- 

 dening at times almost impossible. 



The famous street of Mungubas, formerly 

 conspicuous for the rows of trees of that 

 name, but which now are in bad condition, 

 dead or dying, crossed the Estrada of St. 

 Jose at right-angles, just above the Botanic 

 Garden ; and here we shall find large plants 

 of Allamanda climbing over the bushes, and 

 full of the large yellow flowers. This plant 

 is not uncommon on the outskirts of the 

 woods, in low grounds, and along the edge of 

 the rivers. Its bright flowers are always 

 conspicuous, and it has the merit of being 

 a perpetual bloomer. Unlike most of the 

 climbers here it begins to bloom very young, 

 and the larger the plant, the greater the 

 profusion of bloom. Sometimes, instead of 

 climbing, it spreads along the ground, the 

 joints rooting freely in the moist soil, and 

 sending out great trusses of showy flowers. 



Here, also, we find another pretty little 

 flower, which at first sight reminds one of a 

 small Onoidiwm ; it has the same bright 

 yellow color of so many of that genus of 

 Orchids, and is not unlike them in form. It 

 belongs, however, to a genus of Malpiijhiacem 

 and has shining foliage. The flowers before 

 fading turn coffee-colored, and the combi- 

 nation of the two colors on the same plant 

 renders it attractive ; it is also always in 

 bloom. 



For a long distance the roadside is car- : 

 peted with a slender, delicate-leaved plant, 

 which has a very familiar look. It trails 

 along the ground and roots from the joints, 

 seldom exceeding a few inches in height, j 

 As it is afternoon we can find no flowers ; ' 

 but in the morning all the'ground is strewed 

 with little three petalled, bright-blue blos- 

 soms, the effect of which is very pleasing. 

 It is a Spiderwort (Tradescantia), and, like all 

 of the family, the flowers are very fugitive, 

 soon withering in the hot sun. There are 

 other Spiderworts here, but we have not ob- 

 served them wild round Para. T. discolor, so 

 well known in our greenhouses, is a favor- 

 ite plant in the gardens, and being able to 

 resist the hot sun, it is frequently grown 

 in the vases which stand on the parapets of 

 the houses. It produces its white blossoms 

 in great profusion, and the seed, when ripe, 

 germinates on the parent plant, roots in 

 among the clasping leaves, and every old 

 plant thus becomes a large nursery of young 

 ones. 



There are many plants in the suburbs 

 of Para not natives of Brazil, which have 

 escaped from cultivation and established 

 themselves by the roadsides and in waste 

 places. An example of these is the Indian 

 Shot (Carina indica), which is not uncommon 

 around Para. We have also met quantities 

 of this plant growing far from any existing 

 house, in the open woods, more than 700 

 miles up the Amazon. It is probable, how- 

 ever, that at some former time a house stood 

 near the place, as the forest was of second- 

 ary growth, and a house once deserted soon 

 disappears, the palm roof rotting and the 

 frail mud walls falling to the ground, soon 

 to be covered with a luxuriant vegetation. 

 Brazilian houses have no cellars ; and some 

 garden plants, bushes of Anatta (Bixa Orel- 

 land), or Lemon, Orange, or Guava trees, 

 growing in the forest, are the only signs 

 which remain to show that the spot was 

 once inhabited. 



Another garden plant which we find in 

 especial abundance on the Estrada de St. 

 Jos6 is Thuribergia alata; in some places it 

 covers the ground, climbs up the fences, and 

 runs over the bushes. It is always in bloom, 

 and grows with a luxuriance unknown in our 

 gardens. The varieties are those with light 

 yellow and dark orange flowers, both with 

 and without the deep-colored throat ; but the 

 white-flowered variety is unknownhere. either 

 wild or in gardens. An exotic species (T. 

 laurifolia) is rather common in gardens, and 

 is often seen climbing up trees or covering 

 arbors. It produces in great profusion its 

 immense pale blue, Gloxinia-like flowers 

 and is one of the most beautiful of cultivated 

 climbers. 



Still another exotic, which has become ex- 

 tensively naturalized in Brazil, is the Balsam 

 Apple ( Momordicabalsamina). Itgrowsevery- 

 where, and many an unsightly brush heap is 

 made beautiful by its delicate foliage. Just 

 under our window, leaning against the massy 

 wall of the Custom House, is an old boat, its 

 days of usefulness over, the planks rotting 

 from the bottom and the ribs falling to decay. 

 Of this the Balsam Apple has taken posses- 

 sion ; it twines in and out in every direction, 

 the slender shoots sway in the wind, and the 

 bright fruit swings pendant along the sides. 

 In the morning all the delicate tracery of 

 foliage is gay with yellow flowers, and this 

 all the year round, for young plants spring 

 up as fast as the old ones decay, in constant 

 flower and fruit, in this region of perpetual 

 summer. 



On our walk we shall see hundreds of these 

 delicate climbers, and just above the square 

 of St. Jose is a giant tree the whole trunk 

 of which is clothed with the delicate foliage, 

 which has even mounted to the lower 

 branches. But the tree has another tenant, 

 a mighty climber which twists its huge coils 

 around the trunk, climbs far into the spread- 

 ing head, and sends great drooping branches 

 almost to the ground. The flower is most 

 peculiar : imagine a mass of pea-shaped 

 flowers two inches long on a circular crown, 

 the shorter petals toward the center hanging 

 on a long and very slender stem, color bright 

 yellow, swinging all among and over the 

 branches of the tree, although no imagination 

 can give a perfect idea of the effect produced. 

 The plant is one of the Entadas — huge vines 

 common in South America, and found in the 

 Amazon Valley way up into Peru. The 

 flowers will be followed by a large bean-like 

 pod covered with stinging hairs, in which are 

 the large bean-like seeds. They are round, 

 flat, and susceptible of a high polish, and are 

 the so-called " Sea-Beans" which are sold in 

 the streets of New York for pendants to 

 watch-chains. They derive their name from 

 being often found on sea-beaches, whither 

 they have been borne by ocean currents. 

 The plants often twine on trees overhanging 

 the great rivers of South America, or their 

 confluents ; the seed, when ripe, falls into 

 the water, is carried to the ocean, and at last 

 is left by the receding tide on beaches thou- 

 sands of miles from where it grew. 



The setting sun which, under the equator, 

 is so soon followed by darkness, warns us to 

 leave our botanizing for another day, and we 

 walk on to our house, the air full of the odor 

 of Orange blossoms, Jasmine, and many 

 other sweet-smelling flowers. 



Edw. S. Rand, Jr. 



