2 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
went on shore, and after dining with Mr. Miller, 
the consignee of the Britannia, we waited on 
Messrs. Archibald and James Campbell, colonists 
of long standing and extensive possessions at Para, 
to whom we had been furnished with letters of 
introduction from friends in England. By these 
gentlemen we were most cordially received, and 
were immediately installed in the house of Mr. 
James Campbell, the elder of the two brothers. 
I remained at Para only three months, and even 
of that short period part was spent at Mr. A. 
Campbell's farms, in the environs. Botany occu- 
pied me so completely that my notes on the city 
are of the scantiest description, and I must refer 
to the accounts of preceding travellers for more 
detailed accounts of it and its inhabitants. 
The beginning of the dry season is a sort of 
spring in the Amazon valley. As the rains abate 
and the rivers subside, the trees begin to flower, 
first those of the gapo or inundated river-margins, 
then those of the terra firme or dry land. Some 
trees flower ere the old leaves fall ofT, others along 
with the young leaves. In either case the trees 
are never denuded of leaves, except in a few cases 
of extreme rarity, the old leaves hanging on until 
the young ones are developed, exactly as in ever- 
greens at home. A few months later and it is the 
height of summer ; flowers are scarce, and most 
trees are ripening their fruits and seeds. Both 
flowers and fruits of the real forest trees were for a 
long time "sour grapes" to me. Like Humboldt, 
I was at first disappointed in not finding agile and 
willing Indians ever ready to run like cats or 
monkeys up the trees for me, and in seeing how 
