2 I 2 
NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
CHAP. 
[A letter to Sir William Hooker of the same 
date as the last gives an interesting account of a 
week's collections made under special difficulties.] 
Barra do Rio Negro, April i, 185 1. 
Towards the end of January I crossed to the 
south side of the Rio Negro, to visit a campo— 
called Jauauari — on which Senhor Henrique many 
years ago established a cattle fazenda. The grasses 
on this campo are of poor quality ; when the winter 
floods are high many of the cattle perish ; the 
neighbouring forest is much infested by on^as ; and, 
worse than all, the herdsman is of a very indolent 
disposition. Between the south bank of the river 
and the campo is an intervening gapo, or forest of 
low bushes and trees flooded in the rainy season, 
of two or three miles in width. The water had 
risen sufficiently to enable my boat to traverse 
great part of this, and it was curious work navigat- 
ing among bushes. The campo is about a mile 
broad and three or four miles long ; its southern 
side is skirted by the small river Jauauari, which 
enters the Rio Negro near the mouth of the latter. 
The herdsman's house is near this stream ; it is 
built of mud and thatched with palm-leaves, but it 
had fallen so much into decay that, rather than repair 
it, he had moved to a casa de forno (oven-house) 
which was near his mandiocca plot, and was the 
common property of two or three families. I had 
my choice between these two habitations. But the 
oven -house was merely a roof without any side- 
walls, and was so crowded with inhabitants as to 
leave no room for me and my work. The empty 
house on the campo was so surrounded by mud and 
