110 



A JOURNEY IN BRAZIL. 



above them. Mr. Agassiz gathered and examined great 

 numbers of them, and found that the young Pahns, to 

 whatever genus they may belong, invariably resemble the 

 Chamserops, having their leaves extending fan-like on one 

 plane, instead of being scattered along a central axis, as 

 in the adult tree. The infant Palm is in fact the mature 

 Chamasrops in miniature, showing that among plants as 

 among animals, at least in some instances, there is a cor- 

 respondence between the youngest stages of growth in the 

 higher species of a given type and the earliest introduction 

 of that type on earth.* 



At the close of our ramble, from which the Professor 

 returned looking not unlike an ambulatory representative 

 of tropical vegetation, being loaded down with palm-branch- 

 es, tree-ferns, and the like, we found breakfast awaiting us. 

 Some of our party were missing, however, the hunters 

 having already taken their stations at some distance near 

 the water. The game was an Anta (Tapir), a curious 

 animal, abounding in the woods of this region. It has a 

 special interest for the naturalist, because it resembles 

 certain ancient mammalia now found only among the. 

 fossils, just as the tree-fern, Chamaerops, &c. resemble 

 past vegetable types. Although Mr. Agassiz had seen it 

 in confinement, he had a great desire to observe it in 

 action under its natural condition, and in the midst of a 

 tropical forest as characteristic of old geological times 

 as the creature itself. It was, in fact, to gratify this desire 

 that Mr. Lage had planned the hunt. " L'homme propose 

 et Dieu dispose," however, and, as the sequel will show, 



* In the same way, it may be said that in its incipient growth the Dicoty- 

 ledonous Plant exhibits, in the structure of its ge/minative leaves, the character- 

 istic features of Monocotyledonous Plants. — LA 



