33 & 
R. C. McLean. 
chief crops being wheat, “corn” (maize), sorghum and alfalfa 
(lucerne), and very little prairie vegetation is seen. As the Great 
Plains region is entered the cultivation becomes occasional only, 
and the country is covered with the typical “ short-grass ” 
vegetation, having a totally different aspect from typical prairie. 
This is a grazing country, and “ dry farming ” unless with a 
considerable capital is a very precarious means of livelihood. The 
shortgrass vegetation is broken here and there by sand-hills which 
bear (strangely as it will seem to a European) a decidedly more 
luxuriant vegetation, akin to the prairie type, and largely dominated 
by bunch-grass (Andropogon scoparius). The small streams crossed 
are dry for a considerable part of the year and as one passes west¬ 
wards into the Great Plains the fringing woodland gradually thins 
out and disappears, though the larger rivers which never dry up 
still retain it. 
(to be continued) 
HORTUS FLUMINENSIS: THE BOTANIC GARDENS OF 
RIO DE JANEIRO. 
By R. C. McLean. 
I T was in accordance with an invitation very kindly extended to 
me by Dr. J. C. Willis, the present Director of the Botanic 
Gardens of Rio de Janeiro, that I set sail, at the beginning of 
October, 1912, for a country which I vaguely knew as very rich, and 
a visionary City Beautiful. In prospect, a voyage of 17 days seems 
somewhat formidable, but once accomplished it dwindles surprisingly 
in the imagination, and leaves one wondering why such voyages 
are not continually being made by European naturalists, when such 
rewards are bestowed upon all who accomplish a “ sail to the 
su’thard.” 
We steamed slowly into Rio Bay in the glow of a red dawn ; 
and, if there be any spectacle upon earth more glorious, it needs 
must, I fear, transcend the powers of human appreciation. For Rio 
is the Amazing City, and seems this morning, circled by fantastic 
mountains and deep forests, and lapped in pearl-pink mists, fit sea- 
capital for that legendary isle, whose name Brazil was given long 
ago. 
