Turning now to the vast area of the Brazilian empire, we find it divided into _matos_ (or woods) and _campos_ (or open plains). When the inhabitants would convert into cultivable land a district occupied by forest, they set fire to it during the dry season, and soon a vegetation of frutescent but dwarf species succeeds the primitive vegetation. By renewing this purifying process a second and a third time, the soil finally becomes covered with a species of fern closely resembling our large Pteris, _Pteris caudata_; and if the spot be once more abandoned, it is speedily taken possession of by a viscous, grayish, and foetid species of Gramineæ, well known locally by the name of _Capim gordura_, to botanists by that of _Tristegis glutinosa_. So boundless a voracity has this plant, that it wholly expels from certain regions another and less tenacious variety of the Gramineæ, the _Saccharum_, or _Sapa_. The _Capim gordura_ constitutes in itself almost the entire flora of the artificial _campos_. It is but an indifferent fodder, and cattle derive from it little vigour. [Illustration: AQUATIC PLANTS OF GUIANA. 1. Victoria regia. 2. Raphia tædigera. 3. Scyndapsus fragrans.] In general, the natural _campos_ bear a certain resemblance to our meadows; grass, however, is less abundant; they consist, especially in the colder localities, of Gramineæ which do not, perhaps, exceed our British species in dimensions, but differ greatly in the size of their leaves, and often also in their spreading inflorescence. By their side, as is the case with us, grow other plants of a more graceful floral character. Among these are Myrtaceæ, Melastomaceæ, with their capsular fruits, and a species of Compositæ, called _Veronia_. [Illustration: VEGETABLE LIFE IN THE PAMPAS. Pampas Grass (_Gynerium argenteum_).] The wayfarer who traverses the sterile campos is astonished to discover, on the tortuous and stunted trees that grow there at rare intervals, some flowers of a singular loveliness. Yet who can refuse his admiration from the gorgeous Vochyaceæ; the Malpighiaceæ, richly and handsomely flowered; the Leguminosæ, with their long hanging clusters of sparkling blossoms; the trumpet-shaped flowers of the Bignonias, and the superb _Oochnus_? Nor will he forget a rare _Salvertia_, fragrant as the lily of the valley, and with its blossoms disposed in thyrses which outvie in beauty those of the chestnut.