572 
VEGETATION OF BRAZIL 
pods was obtained upon another plant by the 
same method. He attributes the fecundation 
of the plant in Mexico, to the action of some 
insect which frequents the flower ; and hence 
accounts for the non-production of fruit in 
those plants which have been removed to 
other countries. There can be no doubt 
that this plant is as perfectly indigenous to 
Brazil, as it is to Mexico ; but it is no less 
certain that its fruit is there seldom matured. 
Is this also to be attributed to the absence of 
the means by which nature is supposed to 
effect fecundation in Mexico? This is a sub- 
ject, which, as Professor Morren justly ob- 
serves, well deserves attention in a commercial 
point of view, since his experiments go to 
prove, that in all intertropical countries, vanilla 
might be cultivated, and a great abundance of 
fruit obtained."— Pp. 295—297. 
The Fazenda de Saco do Tanque is situated 
on the boundary between the province of 
Piauhy, and the south-western portion of that 
of Pernambuco ; in this district is an elevated 
table land, called Serra da Batalha, covered 
with an ever-verdant vegetation. At the foot 
of this Serra, and on the ascent itself, Mr. 
Gardner made one of the finest collections of 
plants since leaving Oeiras. 
" In moist sandy places at its foot grow 
some of these beautiful large-flowered small- 
leaved Melastomacece, which are so abundant 
in the gold and diamond districts ; while on 
the more elevated sandy tracts I found im- 
mense quantities of a kind of nutmeg (^Myris- 
ticd), which does not grow more than three 
feet high The trees on the Chapada itself, 
consisted chiefly of the Cashew, Piki, Jatoba, 
Mangaba, Sicupira, Oomphia hexasperma, 
and an arboreous Bignonia ; but intermingled 
with these, there were many beautiful trees 
and shrubs, which I had not before met with. 
After crossing the Chapada, which is three 
leagues in breadth, the descent is very gradual, 
and ultimately merges into a marshy plain 
abounding in Buriti palms. The whole 
country here bore a very different aspect 
fiom that we had left behind us, the vegeta- 
tion being fresh and verdant, which was a 
great relief to the eye, after having been so 
long accustomed to leafless trees, and a bare 
soil of red clay. The woods were all ever- 
green, and between the clusters of the noble 
Burhi palms and the wooded parts of the 
country, there were large open marshy Cam- 
pos covered with grass, and other herbace- 
ous vegetation common to marshy tracts . . . 
I was not disappointed in the few short 
rambles which I took in the neighbourhood, 
as I met with several remarkable plants, quite 
different from any I had before seen ; among 
these were an Eryngium, a Jussicco, wliich 
formed a small tree about twenty feet high, a 
tree-fern, the only one I had seen since I left 
Crato, and a few curious Eriocaulons from 
the marshes."— Pp. 299, 300. 
Near where the Rio Preto divides the pro- 
vince of Pernambuco from that of Goyaz, 
" the moister sandy places afforded me seve- 
ral of those curious Eriocaulons, of which so 
many exist in my collections ; one of these, 
which I found shortly before we reached the 
river, was a large branched species about 
five feet in height ; these remarkable forms 
I afterwards met with in great abundance in 
the Diamond District, which is the great cen- 
tre of the Eriocaulons, as it is o^ t\).eVellozias 
or tree-lily tribe .... In a marsh by the 
side of the river, I collected specimens of 
an Isoetes, which does not appear to differ 
from the one which grows in Great Britain, 
{Isoetes lacustris, Linn.) The sight of this 
plant recalled pleasing recollections of long 
past times, and I could not refrain from in- 
dulging in a lengthened train of reflections, 
which ended by comparing it with myself — 
a stranger in a strange land, and associated with 
still stranger companions." — Pp. 310, 311. 
" I made many excursions in the neighbour- 
hood of the Aldea do Duro, and notwith- 
standing it was then the end of the dry 
season, I found it an excellent field for my 
researches. The sandy marshes yielded me 
many curious Eriocaulons, and beautiful 
Melastomacece; while the upland Campos 
produced several species of Diplusodon, many 
Composite, LaMatce, &c. ; but the most com- 
mon, as well as the most beautiful of the pro- 
ductions of the Campos, were a small Bvjnonia 
growing in tufts, and scarcely a foot high, 
bearing numerous large lemon-coloured trum- 
pet-shaped flowers, an Ipomcea similar in 
habit, and about the same size, producing 
large violet-coloured blossoms, {Ifomma hir- 
sutissiina, Gardn.) and two erect kinds of 
Echites ; in dry rocky places Amaryllis 
Solandrce/lora, Lindl. was very common, pro- 
ducing abundantly its large yellow flowers." 
P. 321. 
Near the Villa de. Natividade is a lofty 
Serra, or mountain range. 
" I found the western side of the Serra to 
be bounded by a thick bed of very compact 
greyish coloured limestone, which beyond the 
northern point of the Serra, for some leagues, 
forms large isolated hills, covered with wood. 
The central part of the chain is granite, be- 
'tween which, and tlie limestone formation, 
the rocks are schistose. My botanical harvest 
v/as a very rich one, so much so, that I was 
induced on two subsequent occasions, to 
ascend the mountain a<>ain. I collected, in 
