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CHAPTER XV.
MAKANHAM, VOYAGE TO ENGLAND, CONCLUSION.
Leaves
the Organ Mountains and returns to Rio de Janeiro—Embarks for England
with large Collections of living and dried Plants—Touches at
Maranham—City described—Its Population—Public Buildings—And
Trade—Geology of its neighbourhood—Visits Alcantara—Sails for
England—Gulf Weed—Its great extent and origin—Flying
Fishes—Observations on their mode of flight—Remarkable Phosphorescence
at Sea—Description of the singular animal that causes this
phenomenon—Its curious nests—Scintillations at Sea caused by a very
minute kind of Shrimp—Arrives in England—Concluding remarks.
Learning that
there was a vessel in the harbour at Rio, about to sail for Liverpool,
and being now anxious to return to England, I put my collections into
order, and left the Organ mountains on the morning of the 25th of
April, reached Piedade the same evening, and arrived in the city early
next morning. Besides botanical specimens for the herbarium, I
collected, during my residence on the mountains, a large number of the most beautiful plants in a living state to take home with me. They filled six large Wardian cases, but scarcely half of them reached England alive, owing to the boxes not having been properly constructed ; many of those which survived are now widely dispersed, and are very ornamental plants.*
* Among those which were introduced to England for the first time on this occasion, may be enumerated the following :—Siphocampylus betultefoUus, G. Don; Pleroma Benthamiana, Gardn. and P. multiflora, Gardn.; Franciscea hydrangea-formis, Pohl; Nematanthus longipcs, Pohl; Gesneria satviafotia, Gardn., and G. leptopes, Gardn.; Clusiafragrans, Gardn.; Luxembnrgia ciliata, Gardn.; Dorstenia
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