FLORA. The flora of Brazil may be divided roughly into three zones—that of the lowlands of the Amazon basin, that of the southeastern pla teau, and that of the broad divide separating tributaries of time Amazon from those of the Rio de la I'lata in the interior. Vegetation on the lowlands of the Amazon is of the most luxuriant character, and time forests of the Amazon Valley are believed to be the most extensive and varied in the world. The botanical families most numerously represented are the Composite, Le guminos:e, Rubiacele. Aroidete, and Filices. in marshy places and along streams, reeds, grasses, and water plants grow in tangled masses, and in the forest trees crowd each other in the struggle for life, and are draped with parasitic vines or bound together by a network of lianas. Along the roast mangroves, mangoes, cocoas, dwarf palms, and the Brazilwood are noticeable. Among the trees of the Amazon basin are the itauba. or stonewood, so named for its durability, the cassia, or cinnamon-tree, the lime, the myrtle. the guava, the bertholletia or 'Brazilnnt' tree, the jacaranda or rosewood, the pas d'areo or bow wood. the Brazilian breadfruit, whose large seeds are used for food. the cuphorbia, the eopaiba, the macaranduba, with a bark rich in tannin and yielding a milky sap resembling india-rubber when coagulated. the large and lofty silk-cotton tree, the tall white trunked seringa or rubber tree, which furnishes the gum of commerce. and
the numerous palms, of which there are three or four hundred species; chief among these are the carnauba palm. every part of NVII it'll is useful, from the wax of its leaves to its edible pith, and the piassaba palm, the bark of which is clothed with a loose fibre used for coarse textile fabrics and for brooms. Orchid:mewls plants, including sev eral species of vanilla and showy epidendruins, rhexias, bignonias, etc., adorn the forest. The eucalyptus and other Australian trees and shrubs have been successfully introduced. There are several kinds of nutritious native grasses which furnish grazing throughout the year. Among the indigenous or broadly cultivated fruits are the pineapple, fig, cnstard-apple, mango, banana. guava. grape. and orange. European grapes, olives, and watermelons of fine flavor are eulti vated. On the southeast coast, within the trop ics, where the rainfall is abundant, there is a similar profuseness of vegetation, succeeded south ward by plants of a more temperate climate. Inland. as the rainfall diminishes, upon the pla teau, the vegetation becomes less abundant, and changes in character to open forests of smaller trees, with palms, ferns. and cacti. This is the catinga country. Farther west, on the divide, where the rainfall is scanty, is a prairie region, covered with grasses and herbaceous plants, in which are scattered groves of trees.