44 



JOUKNEY FliOM EIO DE JANEIRO 



feathered ribbons in the most picturesque manner from the trees. A 

 deep red horizontal fungus adorns the dry trunks ; while a fine carmine- 

 coloured lichen, on the properties of which, as a dyeing matter, some 

 experiments have ])een made in England, covers the bark of the 

 stronger trees with its round knobs. The colossal trees of the Brazi- 

 lian woods are so lofty, that our fowling-pieces could not carry to the 

 top of them, so that we often fired in vain at the finest birds ; but 

 we loaded ourselves with the most beautiful flowers of juicy plants, 

 w^hich we were unfortunately obliged to throw away afterwards, as 

 they soon perish, and cannot be preserved in an herbal. A Kedoute'-' 

 would here find ample materials for a splendid work of uncommon 

 value. The luxuriance and richness of the vegetable kingdom in 

 South America is a consequence of the great moisture which every 

 where prevails. It has, in this respect, a manifest advantage over 

 all other hot countries, and Humboldt expresses himself with such 

 justness on the subject that I cannot omit the following passage from 

 his Views of Nature: — "The narrowness of this variously indented 

 continent, its great extension towards the icy pole, the wide ocean 

 over which the tropical winds blow, the flatness of the eastern coasts, 

 the currents of cold sea-water which flow northwards from the Terra 

 del Fuego, towards Peru ; the number of mountains, the sources of 

 countless springs, and whose snow-clad summits tower far above the 

 clouds ; the abundance of large streams, which after many windings 

 always seek the remotest coast ; deserts without sand, and therefore 

 less heated; impenetrable forests which cover the well-watered plains 

 near the equator; and which in the interior of the country, where the 

 mountains and the ocean are the most remote, exhale immense masses 

 of imbibed or self-produced w^ater ; all these circumstances give to the 



* Mr. Redoute, of Paris, author of some splendid botanical works, particularly Les 

 Liliacees and Les Roses. 



