Although the country between Parnaguá and Saco do Tanque is comparatively level, yet there is a very perceptible rise; and although the general vegetation has very much the same character as that of other Catinga districts, many of the shrubs and trees were quite new to me. At this season very few were in flower; of these, the most remarkable was a very large tree to which the name of Sicupíra is given by the inhabitants, and which I afterwards found extending far into the province of Goyaz; it belongs to the natural order _Leguminosæ_, and has only very recently been described by Mr. Bentham, under the name of _Commilobium polygalæflorum_: it is easily recognised at a great distance by its numerous large panicles of lilac flowers. An essential oil, which is contained in the fruit, is much used by the inhabitants to alleviate the pain of the tooth-ache. A very large silk-cotton tree (_Bombax_), entirely destitute of leaves, was also common, but on one of them I found a few blossoms, which were of enormous size, measuring when fully expanded about a foot and a half across; the petals were of a dark brown colour without, but white within. Near a fazenda called Riacho d’Area, where we stopped a day, grew a number of large palm trees, on the stems of which I found a large fleshy-stemmed orchideous plant, a species of _Cyrtopodium_, which produced flowering stems about four feet high, terminating in a large panicle of flowers, with brown blotches on an orange ground, and smelling sweetly like wall-flower.