to the Botanic Garden, where many plants, well known for
their great utility, might be seen growing. The leaves of the
camphor, pepper, cinnamon, and clove trees were delightfully
aromatic; and the bread-fruit, the jaca, and the mango,
vied with each other in the magnificence of their foliage.
The landscape in the neighbourhood of Bahia almost takes
its character from the two latter trees. Before seeing them,
I had no idea that any trees could cast so black a shade on
the ground. Both of them bear to the evergreen vegetation
of these climates the same kind of relation which laurels
and hollies in England do to the lighter green of the deciduous
trees. It may be observed, that the houses within the
tropics are surrounded by the most beautiful forms of
vegetation, because many of them are at the same time most
useful to man. Who can doubt that these qualities are united
in the banana, the cocoa-nut, the many kinds of palm, the
orange, and the bread-fruit tree?

During this day I was particularly struck with a remark
of Humboldt's, who often alludes to "the thin vapour which,
without changing the transparency of the air, renders its
tints more harmonious, and softens its effects." This is an
appearance which I have never observed in the temperate
zones. The atmosphere, seen through a short space of half
or three-quarters of a mile, was perfectly lucid, but at a
greater distance all colours were blended into a most beautiful
haze, of a pale French grey, mingled with a little blue.
The condition of the atmosphere between the morning and
about noon, when the effect was most evident, had undergone
little change, excepting in its dryness. In the interval,