CHAPTER VIII 
JOURNAL OF A BOTANICAL VOYAGE UP THE RIO 
NEGRO TO SAO GABRIEL DA CACHOEIRA 
{November i 8 5 I to January 1852) 
(Condensed by the -Editor) 
[''Nov. 14, 185 1. — This day (Friday) I left the 
Barra in my canoe with six men, for the Upper 
Rio Negro. There was Httle wind, which soon 
failed entirely. We slept at Paricatiiba, about 
fifteen miles from the Barra on the opposite shore, 
where I gathered seeds of a beautiful small tree 
allied to the well-known Lagerstroemia indica of 
our conservatories." 
Thus begins the Journal, with entries of a very 
similar nature day by day. The writer notices the 
different characters of the soil at his various stop- 
ping-places, whether clay or sand or rock, whether 
sandstone or granite ; and he remarks that rocky 
situations are at this season more prolific in flowers 
than sandy ones, and that everywhere he finds 
trees or shrubs in flower on the very margins of 
the river. The sudden storms alternating with 
calms, the various appearances of the islands and 
shores of the great river, the various huts or small 
villages passed at distant intervals, the success of 
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