)70 
VEGETATION OF BRAZIL. 
shores abound with Mangroves, principally 
Rhizoj'iho'ra Mangle, which reaches here to a 
much greater size than I have elsewhere seen 
it, some of the trees being at least thirty feet 
high, with stems proportionately thick j it 
presents a curious appearance, the large roots 
supporting the stems at the height of several 
feet above the water, and curving outwards 
and downwards ; if the real top were not seen, 
we could almost fancy that the tree had been 
reversed ; the long pendent radicles of the 
seeds are also remarkable, as they are thrown 
down to the ground while the fruit is yet 
attached to the parent plant. The wood ot 
this tree is very much used as fuel, it burns 
extremely well in the green state ; at Maran- 
ham little else is used for this purpose," — Pp. 
145, 146. 
" A little beyond led the road becomes very 
rough, frequently ascending and again descend- 
ing over rocky paths, on which account it is 
no longer serviceable for the transit of wag- 
gons, all farther traffic into the interior being 
now effected either on horseback, or, strange as 
it may appear, upon oxen. The diversity of hill 
and dale renders this part of the journey less 
mountainous, and although the herbaceous 
vegetation was much destroyed by the heat, 
the greater part of the trees, which are both 
large and more numerous, still retained their 
leaves ; the most abundant tree that I ob- 
served was called by the inhabitants Aroeira; 
it is a species of Schhius, perhaps 8. Aroeira, 
St. Hil. and reaches to the height of thirty or 
forty feet ; as the ste^i grows very straight it 
is much used in house-building ; at this time 
it was destitute of leaves, but from the ends 
of its branches were suspended clusters of 
small fruit of a dark colour, giving it very 
much the appearance of the European alder 
when covered with its dark-brown catkins. The 
other trees consist chiefly of large Acacias 
and llimosas, Bignonias of considerable size 
covered with yellow and rose coloured flowers, 
a Triplaris, and, the most beautiful of all, a 
large Jacaranda, the wide-spreading branches 
of which were densely covered with great 
panicles of beautiful large blue flowers, not 
unlike those of the no less splendid Gloxinia 
speciosa; among these sometimes appear a 
few solitary Carnahuba palms, but in hollow 
sheltered places they often occur in groups ; 
large Cacti are not uncommon, and we passed 
over some elevated open shrubby tracts 
abounding in a species of Krameria, The 
Villa de Lavra de Mangabeira is situated on 
the banks of the Rio iSalgado, and contains 
about eighty or a hundred houses, all small, 
and many of them falling to decay .... Here I 
found, growing in vast quantities on the sandy 
margins of the river, a species of Grangea, 
which is a powerful bitter, used by the natives 
as an infusion in dyspeptic cases in the same 
manner as camomile, which, indeed, it much 
resembles, and to Avhich they give the same 
name {rnacella). We left Lavra on the after- 
noon of the same day on which we arrived, 
and halted for the night at a small house near 
the river. In the evening I took a walk in 
the neighbourhood, but met with nothing new 
except a species of Mikania clinging among 
the branches of a Mimosa ; and a few shells 
in the bed of the river. Between this place 
and Lavra, the course of the river is very 
tortuous, and being now very nearly dried up, 
I observed that the inhabitants had planted 
melons, water-melons, gourds, &c. in it ; 
bananas were now beginning to be cultivated, 
and almost every house had its own little cot- 
ton and tobacco plantation. Every where 
Argemone Mexicana, the Cardo Santo of the 
Brazilians, grows in great plenty, the large 
yellow poppy-like flowers being very beauti- 
ful ; a handful of the leaves of this plant;, to- 
gether with about a quarter of an ounce of 
the ripe seeds infused, is used as a draught in 
jaundice."— Pp. 173—176. 
" The greater portion of the wooded dis- 
tricts around Crato consists of deciduous trees 
and shrubs, forming what are called Catingas, 
but in low moist localities, and along the base 
of the Serra, a great many of the ti-ees are 
evergreen ; one of the most common denizens 
of the Catingas is the Magonia glahrata, St. 
Hil., which is here truly gregarious, cover- 
ing large tracts for miles to the exclusion of 
almost everything else ; in general it is a tree 
from thirty to forty feet high, but at full 
growth it often attains a much greater stature. 
Like many of the other inhabitants of the 
Catingas, its flowers appear before the leaves, 
they are in large panicles, of a greenish yellow 
colour', and of very sweet scent ; it is called 
Tingi by the natives, who apply it to many 
useful purposes ; an infusion of the bark of 
the root is employed to poison fish, and that 
of the stem to cure old ulcers. The fruit is 
a large dry triangular capsule filled with 
broad flat seeds, from the kernels of which a 
kind of soap is manufactured ; the manner in 
which they make it is this : After having taken 
off the brown membrane which covers the 
seeds, they are put into a tub of water to 
steep for some time, when the cotyledons 
begin to swell and soften, the thin skin which 
still covers them is easily taken off, and they 
are then put into a pot along with a small 
portion of tallow ; by boiling and stirring 
them they soon form a homogeneous mass, 
'which, when cool, is said to answer very well 
for washing clothes. Another tree which 
grows in similar situations, is a species of 
Caryocar, that presents a fine appearance 
when covered with its large corymbs of yellow 
