VEGETATION OF BPw\ZIL. 
569 
Near the village of Propia on the pouth of 
the Rio de Francisco, and seven leagues from 
Penedo, 
*' The most striking objects of vegetation 
v^hich I observed on the banks of the rivei", 
were many trees of considerable size, belong- 
ing to tlie natural order Leguminosce, bearing 
large spikes of light purple flowers ; abund- 
ance of a curious kind of Cactus, reaching to 
the height of from twenty to thirty feet, the 
great fleshy and naked arms of which stand 
out like the branches of an enormous chande- 
lier. A most striking difierence was to be 
observed between the verdure of that part of 
the country which, for upwards of four months, 
had been under water, and the more elevated 
parts, on which no rain had fallen for nearly 
six months. The latter had more the ap- 
[learatice of the deciduous woods of Europe in 
winter, than such as grow within the tropics 
:ire generally supposed to present. It was 
only here and there, that a tree was to be 
seen covered with leaves, all the others hav- 
ing lost their foliage, owing to the exce^^sive 
and long continued drought." — Pp. 119, 120. 
At Traipu, seven leagues further, on the 
north bank of the river, 
" The efi^ect of tlie drought on the vege- 
tation was still greater than further down ; 
as far as the eye could reach, nothing like a 
forest was to be seen, both the hills and val- 
leys being thinly covered with small trees 
and shrubs, and all, with a few solitary excep- 
tions, denuded of their foliage. On the surface 
of the ground itself there was no herbaceous 
vegetation, the red coloured soil alone being 
seen through the withered bushes. Here and 
there along the banks a few houses exist, but 
none were to be observed inland. The only 
objects that relieved tlie eye in this desert- 
like region, were the green bushes which grew 
along the inundated banks, and the grotesque 
Cacti abounding in dry rocky places. These 
latter are the most conspicuous objects that 
meet the eye of a voyager; some of their 
trunks are of immense thickness, and their 
branching tops reach to a great height above 
the surrounding vegetation. These are cer- 
tainly the most remarkable looking plants of 
the many which clothe the surface of our 
globe, their huge fleshy branches seeming 
more the work of art than of nature. It is 
only plants such as these, that are able to re- 
tain their vex'dure during the long droughts 
to which the country here is subjected. On 
the rocky places where these grow, there are 
also many Bromeliaceous plants, which, in 
spite of the want of rain, not only grow luxu- 
riantly, but produce their large red clusters 
of flowers in the greatest perfection. The 
rocks on which these plants vegetate are of 
gneiss, in thin layers of a dark colour, full of 
small garnets, and cropping out at a very 
obtuse angle towards the south. We remained 
for the night at Traipu, and at nine o'clock 
next morning resumed our voyage, but as the 
wind was very high, we could make no way 
against the current ; at about half a league 
from the place of our departure we were 
obliged to halt for some hours on the north 
bank of the river. This afibrded me an op- 
portunity of landing, when I made a few 
additions to my collections. Among these 
was a species of Azolla, which existed in the 
greatest abundance, in a flat muddy place 
that was slightly flooded. Here also I met 
with some of the largest Cacti I have ever 
seen ; one in particular was of enormous size, 
the stem measuring upwards of three feet in 
circumference, and unbranched to the height 
of about ten feet ; its entire height could not 
be less than between thirty and forty feet. 
This and other large kinds of Cactus are 
called by the inhabitants of this part of the 
country Sheeke-sheeke, and their fleshy stems 
and branches, after being stript of their bark 
and spines, are roasted and eaten in times of 
scarcity ; under similar circumstances they 
are given raw to cattle. On the following 
morning, before breakfast, I took a walk to a 
high ridge of gneiss rocks, which is at a little 
distance from the river, and found a variety 
of different kinds of Cacti. One of these 
was a great Melocactus much larger than the 
one which is so common near Pernambuco ; 
it grows in fissures of the rock where scarcely 
any soil exists, and its tough roots penetrate 
to such a depth, that they can with difiiculty 
be withdrawn ; living specimens of this 
(^Melocactus Hookerianus, Gardn.) which I 
sent home, now exist in the collections at 
Kew and Glasgow."~Pp. 123—125. 
Alagoas was afterwards visited. 
" During my rambles in this neighbour-, 
hood, I found several species of plants which 
I had not previously met with. In a small 
stream of beautifully clear water the curious 
Cahomha aquatica, Aubl. growls abundantly, 
which to the Botanist is a most interesting 
plant, as, both in habit and structure, it forms a 
transition link between the Ra7iunculus family 
and that of the water lilies. In the same 
stream I likewise collected specimens of a 
Marsilt^a,, a pale blue flowered Pontederia, 
and a large white flowered Ntjmphcea different 
from that which grows in the lake at Olinda. 
In brackish water a little above Maceio, a 
Potamogeton grows in vast quantities, which, 
on comparison, does not seem to difl^er from 
the British P. pectinatus. We returned to 
Maceio by daylight, and I observed that the 
