Near the entrance of the wood we passed a large species of _Copaifera_, the lower part of the stem of which had been pierced for the purpose of obtaining the balsam which those trees exude. For miles our route lay nearly parallel with a small river, along the banks of which grew some very large trees; among them I observed a species of _Laurus_, and another of _Pleroma_, both in flower. The underwood consisted of a great variety of shrubby _Melastomaceæ_, _Myrtaceæ_, _Rubiaceæ_, and suffruticose species of _Begonia_. In other places elegant tree-ferns abounded, their stems often covered with little delicate species of the same tribe, or air-plants bearing beautiful flowers. Pretty herbaceous ferns and handsome-flowered _Begonias_ were trodden down at every footstep. The stems of the large trees were covered with _Bromelias_, _Tillandsias_, _Orchideæ_, ferns, and a climbing species of _Begonia_. Occasionally a large plant of _Cactus truncatus_ was to be seen hanging from rocks or from the stem of some large tree, covered with hundreds of beautiful pink blossoms. In crossing over a hill about five hundred feet high, which stands in the valley we were now passing through, I found the top of it literally covered with various kinds of Orchidaceous plants, but with the exception of the beautiful little _Sophronites grandiflora_, which was then in flower, all had been previously met with at a lower elevation. It was here, likewise, that I first met with _Luxemburgia ciliosa_, a fine shrub producing large corymbs of lemon-coloured flowers, and belonging to the violet tribe. On this hill I likewise observed two kinds of bamboo, different from the large kinds in the woods below. One of them had the internodes considerably shorter in proportion to the size of the plant, and was altogether much smaller. The other species was still less, its stem not being more than half an inch in diameter, but continuing of that thickness to a height of fifteen or twenty feet. The getting through these was the most difficult part of our day’s journey.