3i8 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
very scanty ; yet there are even a few scattered 
trees, of humble growth, some of which grow down 
to the very beach. The species that most abound 
are a stout branched Cactus {Cereus peruvianus), 
growing to 30 feet, truncheons of whose trunk serve 
the people for stools ; and a beautiful Jacquinia 
{J. armillaris) of the same height. The latter has 
somewhat the aspect of the Holly, from the dark 
green, rigid, spiny-pointed leaves ; but the flowers, 
which are very numerous, are of a deep vermilion 
and very sweet-scented ; and they are succeeded by 
fruits resembling small oranges in colour and shape, 
although uneatable and narcotic, and used by the 
inhabitants for stupefying fish.^ When I arrived 
here, with the exception of these and a few other 
shrubby trees, and of a winding green line of 
mangroves (marking the course of a creek), the 
whole country had the aspect of a barren sandy 
waste. Even the range of hills that runs parallel 
to the coast at a distance of one to two leagues 
showed only brown and withered shrubs. But 
when it began to rain a change came o'er the face 
of nature more sudden and surprising" than even 
that of a bright spring succeeding a severe winter 
in Europe. "The desert blossomed like the rose." 
The sandy plains became in a few days clad with 
verdure : curious and pretty grasses, most of which 
I had not even seen elsewhere ; flowering annuals, 
including a Polygala — not prettier than the Milk- 
wort of our English heaths, but of nobler growth 
(i to 2 feet) and bearing long spikes of roseate 
flowers ; patches of apparently dead brush, scattered 
^ The genus Jacquinia belongs to the Myrsinaceae, an order allied to the 
primroses. — Ed. 
