VOYAGE UP THE RIO NEGRO 265 
seems to be a Physocalymma, a genus (if I may 
trust to Paxton) not in cultivation. My specimens 
give no idea of the beauty of the plant, as I was 
taken ill after gathering them, and they were nearly 
spoiled before I could get them into paper. 
I left the Barra on November 14 and reached here 
on December 18 — a good voyage considering that 
I worked all the way and consequently made fre- 
quent stoppages. I have dried some 3000 speci- 
mens on the voyage — a much greater number than 
I ever dried on any previous voyage — and I am 
now occupied in arranging them for packing into 
a case which I shall leave here to be forwarded 
to Para. It was the owner of this sitio (Senhor 
Manoel Jacinto de Souza, a lieutenant of police) 
who sent me five out of the six men that composed 
my crew. They were under no obligation to as- 
cend higher than Uanauaca, but they have agreed 
to accompany me to Sao Gabriel, if I will only let 
them have a fortnight to work in their rocas. It 
was no slight trouble to have to send 1000 miles 
for men, to wait three months for them, and then 
to have to pay them for the voyage down and for 
the time they were waiting for me ^in the Barra 
(for they came on me quite unexpectedly), as well 
as for the voyage up. Yet even on these terms 
I was glad to get them. So immense is the diffi- 
culty of procuring men here to do anything, that 
I think of removing altogether to Venezuela. . . . 
I should like to ascend the Rio Negro again, 
because I was obliged to leave so many fine things 
on its banks. After passing Barcellos almost 
everything was new, and so many things were in 
flower, that I was obliged to confine myself to 
