342 
Hortus Fluminensis. 
higher up, water is led off into a canal, which passes along the 
hillside, and pours the water down into the Gardens in two cascades, 
from which it runs everywhere in little shallow waterways along 
the paths and among the grass. 
There are three glass-houses in the Gardens, in cool spots, for 
the care of smaller and more delicate plants, and in one of these is 
housed a fine collection of Orchids, made by one of the naturalists 
attached to the Gardens, Dr. Armando Frazao, to whom I am very 
much indebted for his great kindness during my stay in Rio. 
The Gardens contain some statuary, and also some fine old 
masonry, including a Colonial gateway, now almost unique. There 
is a bust of the Founder, Dom Joao VI, placed beside his great 
Palm brought from the West Indies, the mother-palm of all the 
Oreodoxas in Brazil; and there is also a rocky mound beside the 
pond which bears a monument to Fra Leandro, a churchly Director 
of a former day. 
It is impossible to deny that the Gardens have suffered from 
past neglect, and there is a certain disorder that is indicative of the 
insouciant outlook of the Brazilian upon matters which do not 
concern politics ; but even in the short time that Dr. Willis has 
been in office he has effected great improvements, and his energetic 
measures will within another year place the cultivation of the 
Gardens upon a very different footing. 
Among other improvements at present in progress, may be 
mentioned the great expansion of the present small library, and the 
erection of a fine building for the accommodation of the herbarium, 
at present confined to a single room. The new library will then 
occupy the whole ground floor of the present single building which 
houses the executive offices, library and herbarium. These offices, 
the Director’s present house, the Director’s old house—a building 
dating from the XVIIth century, and now inhabited by work-people 
—and the laboratories, are all grouped at the western extremity of 
the Gardens, ard are approached by a special gate from the Rua 
Jardim Botanico, which is rapidly being transformed from a country 
road into a broad Avenida. 
The neighbourhood of the Gardens is interesting in itself. The 
brackish Lagoa Roderigo da Freitas between the Jardim and the 
sea, is but one of the many features of interest. Without doubt 
its plankton would repay investigation, so little being known about 
that subject in tropical countries. Upon the shore is an extensive 
stretch of Restinga forest, a type peculiar to Brazil, and 
ecologically uninvestigated. The valley behind the Gardens ; the 
famous mountains themselves, all swathed in forest, and many 
another thing besides, the student can find to attract his attention. 
It is indeed to be hoped that many students will visit a tropical 
station of such merit. The general cost of living in Rio is 
undoubtedly high ; but even a short visit repays one so amply, that 
this need not be an insuperable barrier; and accommodation at a 
moderate price can always be obtained without great difficulty. 
The journey can be performed without risk at any season of the 
year, but for a student the Long Vacation would be most 
convenient, and, by going out in May or even June, and returning 
in October, no outfit beyond ordinary English summer things 
would be needful, and tropical vegetation might be studied with the 
maximum of comfort. 
