148 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
One of the Utricularias iyU. Spruceana, Benth.) was 
surely the simplest in structure of all its tribe, and 
may serve to give an idea of the general aspect of 
these ephemerals. Stems of the size of an ordinary 
sewing-needle, fixed into the sand by a little cone 
of rootlets, no leaves, but a minute tubular two- 
lipped bract a little below the flower, which is white 
and comparatively large, complete the description 
of its outward aspect ; but then it grew in such 
abundance that patches of sand of many yards in 
diameter were white with it. The plant, however, 
that most interested me was an Isoetes (/. ama- 
zonica, Mgg.), exceedingly like the /. lacustris 
which inhabits our northern lakes. It was the first 
of its tribe that had been found near the Equator. 
A second species I found afterwards in nearly the 
same latitude on the cold paramos of the Andes at 
an elevation of 12,000 feet. 
These ephemeral plants on the beaches of the 
Tapajoz are a most remarkable feature of its vege- 
tation, and I have seen nothing like it elsewhere, 
except on inundated islands in the cataracts of the 
Uaupes. Certainly vegetation is on a most gigantic 
scale in the Amazon valley, not only as regards the 
vast size attained by some of the species, but also 
in the range of magnitude from the enormously 
large to the extremely minute. Compare, for in- 
stance, the lofty Eriodendrons and Caryocars with 
these lowly Utricularias and Alismas. 
Whilst the beach was thus being bedecked with 
pretty but transitory flowers, the more permanent 
vegetation of its sandy or stony outer margin was 
also putting on a flowery garb. Low bushy trees, 
averaging 20 to 30 feet high — with here and 
