For the first few days, my walks did not extend much beyond the suburbs of the town. The country being quite flat, the soil sandy, and the dry season having commenced, the herbaceous vegetation in the more exposed situations was beginning to suffer for want of rain. For many miles round the town, the Cocoa-nut and other large Palms grow in the greatest profusion, mixed with fine trees of the Cashew-nut, then loaded with their curious and refreshing fruit of a yellow or reddish colour, and the Jack, the Bread-fruit, and the Orange. Much attention, I observed, is paid to the gardens attached to the houses near the town, many of them being tastefully laid out, and adorned with beautiful shrubs, partly Brazilian and partly of Indian origin. The Mimosa and other hedges, as about Rio, are festooned with climbers, among which the Cow-itch plant (_Stizolobium urens_) is the most abundant. There is also in many places a large species of Dodder (_Cuscuta_), which climbs over the hedges with its long yellow cord-like branches, and gives them a most singular appearance. The sea-coast yielded me many curious plants, particularly one part of it about eight miles to the southward of the town, where the soil for some distance inland is very sandy and covered with shrubs. There I found in great plenty a new kind of those curious mossy Cacti (_Melocactus depressus_, Hook.); it was but a small one, being only about four inches high, and eighteen in circumference. About a fortnight after my arrival at Pernambuco, Dr. Loudon removed to his country house, situated on the banks of the Rio Capibaribe, about four miles west from Recife; and, as the country round it was chiefly uncultivated, this afforded more ample scope for my researches. The Rio Capibaribe, which empties itself into the harbour at the Recife, is of small size, and is navigable only for canoes to a distance of about ten miles from the town. The navigation for six miles, as far as Monteiro, is very pleasant, and the scenery is rendered more agreeable by the number of villas, surrounded by gardens, which are scattered along its banks. Many of these houses are inhabited during the fine or dry season only, when most of the wealthy citizens resort to them for the benefit of bathing in the river; for, in hot climates, fresh water is preferred, as bathing in salt water generally produces great irritation on the surface of the body, from the salt crystallizing there, unless washed off with fresh water. For the purpose of bathing, each house has a large shed projecting into the river, the tops and sides of which are covered with cocoa-nut leaves. They are mostly rebuilt every year, as they are generally carried away by the floods in the rainy season.