I was the English Botanist about to visit Jardim, told me that his name was Gouvea; that he had heard of my intended visit from his friends in Crato, to which place he was then going, intending to return in the course of a few days. From him I also learned that his companions had come to meet the Visitador, and escort him to Jardim; in half an hour’s time they all passed us on their return, in company with the prelate, and soon afterwards the Visitador’s troop overtook us, consisting of eight or nine horses, one of which was loaded with water for the journey across the Taboleira, as all elevated flat tracts are called in the interior. The water was carried in large leathern bags, and as I had not as yet provided myself with such an apparatus, I was contented with purchasing a number of oranges, and a few pieces of sugar cane, as very palatable substitutes, and on a short journey easily carried. The Serra is scarcely so high here as it is at Crato, but the ascent is very rugged, and in several places very steep. About half an hour after we descended the Serra we passed the Visitador and his party, all lying under the shade of a large tree, eating the fruit of the Mangába which grew abundantly around them: he kindly invited me to remain and partake of his breakfast, for which he was awaiting the arrival of his troop, but I declined his kind offer as I was anxious to cross the Serra without halting. It occupied a ride of nearly six hours to traverse this table land, which is perfectly level all the way; it is thinly studded with small trees, which give it very much the appearance of an English orchard; the soil was thickly covered with long grass, which was now dried up like hay; in many places it had been set fire to, and large tracts burned, which I afterwards found to be a very common practice in the open campos of Brazil towards the end of the dry season, in order that after the first rains a good crop of new grass may thus be obtained; it is, indeed, astonishing to witness the rapidity with which it then springs up. The vegetation on this Taboleira I found to be so very similar to that on the top of the Serra at Crato, that with the exception of a single specimen of a shrubby species of _Cassia_, I did not meet with anything I had not before collected; on the ascent of the Serra, however, I found a new species of _Rollinia_ in flower. It was not till we had reached nearly the extremity of the Taboleira, that I came in sight of the valley in which the Villa da Barra do Jardim is situated, from the rich and verdant appearance of which it takes the name of Jardim, or Garden. The Serra being lower on the south than on the north side, the descent is much easier, and the road is also better.