four
leagues of our journey which lay through an undulating elevated region
destitute of arboreous vegetation; the soil was of a white sandy
nature, thinly covered with dwarf shrubs, and small dry tufts of grass:
it was only here and there that a small stunted tree made its
appearance among the bushes : as we approached the river, however, the
country became more flat and better wooded. Notwithstanding the arid
nature of this tract, its scanty vegetation was, with few exceptions,
quite new to me. The moister sandy places afforded me several 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 centre of the Eriocaulons, as it is of the Fellozias, or
tree-lily tribe. The river we here found to be about forty feet broad,
and not less than from sixteen to twenty feet in depth; the current was
still rapid, and the water so limpid, that the bottom could be seen
quite distinctly. Several large Buriti palms grow on its banks, and the
bridge by which we crossed, was one of these trees cut down, so as to
fall across the stream. It was not without considerable trouble, that
we got all our luggage taken to the other side, which when
accomplished, the horses were swum over a little further up the river.
At about two hundred yards from its banks we encamped under a large
Myrtle tree [Myrica), where we remained a day, for I found it
to be an excellent place for my researches. In a marsh by the side of
the river, I collected specimens of an Isoetes, which does not appear to differ from the one {Isoetes lacustris, Linn.)
which grows in Great Britain. The sight of this plant recalled pleasing
recollections of long past times, and I could not refrain from
indulging 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.
Our
next journey, which was one of four long leagues, through an arid,
undulating, sandy, thinly-wooded country, brought us to the foot of the
Chapada da Mangabeira, an elevated level table-
