266 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
those which presented the greatest novelty of 
structure. Nothing Hke this has ever happened 
to me before. I was obHged, for instance, to shut 
my eyes to Myrtles, Laurels, Ingas, and several 
others. Between the Barra and Uanauaca I 
counted no fewer than fourteen species of Lecy- 
this ^ in flower, and all but one new to me! Yet 
of these I got a stock of only four or five ; for, to 
say nothing of the difficulty of preserving so many 
things, I found my Indians very hard to set agoing 
again when stopped in the middle of their work. 
And when you consider the time that is lost in 
collecting trees — for your tree is rarely on the 
very river's brink, but you have to cut your way 
to its base with cutlasses, and it has then to be 
climbed or cut down — you will understand why I 
generally contrived to make my collections when 
we stopped to cook our meals. 
I enclose you two flowers of a Leguminous tree 
which was in flower all the way up the river and 
formed a great ornament to its banks. It is 
a Heterostemon (a most remarkable genus), but 
whether a described species I cannot say. The 
petals are a fine blue slightly tinged with purple, 
and the column of stamens is red. There are no 
pods ripe yet, but I will try to send you some. As 
it often flowers at lo feet high, it is very suitable 
for cultivation. But the glory of the Rio Negro 
is a Bignoniaceous tree (apparently an undescribed 
genus) with whorled leaves and a profusion of pink 
flowers the size of those of the foxglove. It grows 
90 feet high ! 
In Cryptogamia alone am I disappointed in the 
^ A genus allied to the Brazil-nut tree. 
