like a star. The low ground on the borders between the forest
wall and the road was encumbered with a tangled mass of bushy and
shrubby vegetation, amongst which prickly mimosas were very
numerous, covering the other bushes in the same way as brambles
do in England. Other dwarf mimosas trailed along the ground close
to the edge of the road, shrinking at the slightest touch of the
feet as we passed by. Cassia trees, with their elegant pinnate
foliage and conspicuous yellow flowers, formed a great proportion
of the lower trees, and arborescent arums grew in groups around
the swampy hollows. Over the whole fluttered a larger number of
brilliantly-coloured butterflies than we had yet seen; some
wholly orange or yellow (Callidryas), others with excessively
elongated wings, sailing horizontally through the air, coloured
black, and varied with blue, red, and yellow (Heliconii). One
magnificent grassy-green species (Colaenis Dido) especially
attracted our attention. Near the ground hovered many other
smaller species very similar in appearance to those found at
home, attracted by the flowers of numerous leguminous and other
shrubs. Besides butterflies, there were few other insects except
dragonflies, which were in great numbers, similar in shape to
English species, but some of them looking conspicuously different
on account of their fiery red colours.

After stopping repeatedly to examine and admire, we at length
walked onward. The road then ascended slightly, and the soil and
vegetation became suddenly altered in character. The shrubs here
were grasses, low sedges and other plants, smaller in foliage
than those growing in moist grounds. The forest was second
growth, low, consisting of trees which had the general aspect of
laurels and other evergreens in our gardens at home-- the leaves