SAN ROMAO TO THE DIAMOND DISTRICT. 335
been
the better. The Guarrla-Mor wished me to remain another night, in order
to avoid sleeping on the top of the mountain far from any house; but as
we were all much accustomed to this, it gave us no concern, although
afterwards we had reason to regret our decision. Shortly after leaving
the fazenda, we ascended a Serra of considerable height, barely wooded
with a few low shrubs, the greater part of which consisted of three
species of Lychno-phora. Continuing along the undulating top of
this, we reached another ascent, stony and difficult in the extreme for
the horses, which terminated in a rocky and rather flat top of
considerable length. This place presented quite an alpine appearance;
the rugged arenaceous schistose rocks, and even the ground, as well as
the small shrubs, had a hoary appearance, from the numerous lichens by
which they were covered; and the cold we experienced was quite in
unison with the aspect of the country.
With
the exception of the elevated ranges of the Organ mountains, tins was
the richest botanical field I had met with during my long
peregrinations. So numerous indeed were the objects that presented
themselves on every side, each more beautiful or more curious than the
other, that I was obliged to restrict myself in the number of specimens
collected, so that I might obtain at least a few of each kind. The
shrubs here consisted of different species of Lychnophora, beautiful Melastomacea, a Virgularia covered with rose-coloured blossoms, several Hypti, a Panax, &c.; and among these grew many curious kinds of Eriocaulon, and
other small herbaceous plants. The soil here was rather boggy, and
numerous little rills of limpid water were flowing down the mountain in
all directions. Leaving this flat, we entered upon a third ascent,
steeper and more stony than the previous one, which shortly brought us
to a flatfish, grassy, somewhat shrubby-tract.
On this ascent a different vegetation again presented itself, two ofthe most beautiful of the plants being a species of Physocalyir, a
handsome shrub about three feet high, with numerous orange-red flowers,
surrounded by a large inflated calyx of nearly the same colour, and a
beautiful scarlet-flowered Lisianthus. We
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