1848.] 
VEGETATION. 
9 
them, they would hardly be noticed among the motley 
crowd of regular inhabitants. 
I have already stated that the natural productions of 
the tropics did not at first realize my expectations. This 
is principally owing to the accounts of picture- drawing 
travellers, who, by only describing the beautiful, the pic- 
turesque, and the magnificent, would almost lead a per- 
son to believe that nothing of a different character could 
exist under a tropical sun. Our having arrived at Para 
at the end of the wet season, may also explain why we 
did not ah first see aU the glories of the vegetation. The 
beauty of the palm-trees can scarcely be too highly drawn; 
they are peculiarly characteristic of the tropics, and their 
varied and elegant forms, their beautiful foliage, and 
their fruits, generally useful to man, give them a never- 
failing interest to the naturalist, and to all who are fami- 
liar with descriptions of the countries where they most 
abound. The rest of the vegetation was hardly what I 
expected. We found many beautiful flowers and climb- 
ing plants, but there are also many places which are just 
as weedy in their appearance as in our own bleak climate. 
But very few of the forest-trees were in flower, and most 
of them had nothing very peculiar in their appearance. 
The eye of the botanist, indeed, detects numerous tro- 
pical forms in the structure of the stems, and the form 
and arrangement of the leaves ; but most of them pro- 
duce an effect in the landscape remarkably similar to 
that of our own oaks, elms, and beeches. These remarks 
apply only to the immediate vicinity of the city, where 
the whole surface has been cleared, and the present 
vegetation is a second growth. On proceeding a few 
