At the foot of the mountains the underwood principally consists of shrubs belonging to the natural orders _Melastomaceæ_, _Myrtaceæ_, _Compositæ_, _Solanaceæ_, and _Rubiaceæ_, among which are many large species of herbaceous ferns, and a few palms. About the middle, palms and tree ferns abound, some of the latter reaching to the height of not less than forty feet. These trees are so unlike every other denizen of the forest, so strange in appearance, yet so graceful, that they have always attracted my attention more than any other, not even excepting the palms. At an elevation of about 2,000 feet, a large species of bamboo (_Bambusa Togoara_, Mart.) makes its appearance. The stems of this gigantic grass are often eighteen inches in circumference, and attain a height of from fifty to one hundred feet. They do not, however, grow perfectly upright, their tops forming a graceful curve downwards. Throughout the whole distance, the path was lined on each side with the most beautiful herbaceous plants and delicate ferns. We reached Mr. March’s Fazenda early in the forenoon. His estate embraces an extent of country containing sixty-four square miles. The greater part of it is still covered by virgin forests; that which is cleared, consists of pasture land, and several small farms for the cultivation of Indian corn, French beans, and potatoes. Plentiful crops are yielded of the two former, but the produce of the latter is neither so abundant nor so good as in England. He has also near his house a large garden, under the management of a French gardener, in which nearly all the European fruits and vegetables grow tolerably well. The peach, the olive, the fig, the vine, the apple, the quince, the loquat, the pear, the orange, and the banana, may be seen growing side by side, and all, with the exception of the two latter, bearing abundance of fruit. The orange and the banana also bear, but the cold seldom allows the fruit to come to perfection. The strawberry yields but little fruit, and the gooseberry none at all. The apples are quite equal to any I have tasted in England, but the peaches are very inferior; bushels of them are given to feed the pigs. The figs are delicious, especially a variety which produces small green-coloured fruit. Excellent crops of cauliflower, cabbage, asparagus, artichokes, turnips, carrots, peas, onions, &c., are freely produced, and sent weekly to the city. The most fertile part of the estate is a large valley, situated between the higher chain of the Organ Mountains and a smaller range which runs nearly parallel with it, and many of the smaller valleys, which run up to the peaks themselves, are cultivated; these are all well watered with small streams of cool and limpid water.