The palms and ferns, cut and cropped into fantastic shapes, mingle with the cactus, which needs no such attention. In the shady bowers are welcome resting-places, where the wearied sit in the patches of sunlight that splash warm upon them through the branches, reading the papers in French, Italian, and Portuguese, smoking eternally, conversing frequently, and moving but seldom. Flower-sellers move here and there, offering tempting bunches of the loveliest pansies, violets, and roses, and add colour to the scene. The singing of birds, the tinkling of the car bells, the hum of voices, the strident cries of the hawkers, all mingle on the sunny Sunday morn, and a happier-looking city and people it would be difficult to imagine. A favourite jaunt with the Sunday or holiday crowd--Italians, negroes, Portuguese, Germans, Paulistas, and English--is a run on the car from the Largo do Sé to the gardens and museum at Ypiranga. The journey occupies about half an hour, and the route runs through the Square of 15th September, along the Rua do Gloria, with its small one-story houses, past the abattoir, through boulevards planted on either side with trees, to the suburbs, where building is going on in all directions, the workmen busy at their jobs, although it is Sunday. Outside the town are market gardens and fields with green grass and rich, red soil, firs and pines on all sides, cattle browsing in the meadowland, rose-covered villas and factories springing up amidst the green fields. Most of the occupants of the cars descend at the gardens of the Ypiranga, in the grounds of which are wide walks, raised terraces, lined with cypress trees, and well laid out beds of flowers and shrubs of all varieties. The museum is built upon the spot where the independence of Brazil was proclaimed in 1822 by the Prince Dom Pedro, who, on learning of the refusal of the Cortes at Lisbon to listen respectfully to the Brazilian delegates, impetuously gave utterance to the famous cry, “Independence or Death!” and was shortly afterwards proclaimed constitutional Emperor of Brazil. [Illustration: THE NATIONAL MUSEUM AT YPIRANGA.] The museum, erected as a monument to commemorate this historic event, is a well-designed and imposing building, containing fine staircases and lofty galleries, in one of which is a huge picture illustrating the “Independencia ou Morto” incident. The galleries are filled with collections of various objects of natural and historical interest such as butterflies and birds, wasps and bees, with their curious nests, old leather-covered furniture, sedan chairs, cupboards, fourposter beds, and chests of the colonial period.