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---continuation commentary
#33b----
In the piles of stones that have split
off the precipitous mountain-sides, you see bushes of Lacistema
serrulatum, Solana and Pothomorphe grouped with other Piperaceae and with Smilax, and
here and there at the forest's edge a tree of Lasiandra
Fontanesiana or of other prettily flowering Melastomaceae.
Among the taller trees of the forest we note Carpotroche
brasiliensis, known to the inhabitants as Papo d'anjo,
several slender Laurineae with extremely thick foliage, and Cecropia
adenopus (Ambay Pump-wood), which is so called on account of
the equal cushion of petioles on each side, which display a whitish color on the trunk and whorled branches,
redness on the stipules, yellowness
on the new leaves that are about to break out, greenness on the top of
the fully developed leaves, and a silky white on their bottom. Often the
path skirts deep chasms, so that now we can look upon from above the crowns
of magnificent trees which had been hidden from us below. We have to marvel
at the diverse multitude of trees displayed : Laurineae, Bignoniaceae, Melastomaceae, Myrtaceae, Lecythideae, Leguminosae and Urticineae .

When we have left behind this built path, paved generally with stones
of granite, alongside which Boehmeria
caudata (Falsenettle) or Asa Peixe to the inhabitants,
shakes its jutting spikes at the blowing of the mountain wind, where Solanum
paniculatum, the Juri-peba of the Brazilians, spreads
its prickly branches, where a ten-feet-tall Vernonia
polyanthes unfolds its panicles decorated with flower-heads -- and so as we are about to descend from
this path into the neighboring forest-groves, we catch sight among the
rocks of the numerous and pleasant forms of Pilea, Acrocarpidium, Peperomia, and Gesnera, which push
the most splendid flowers out from the cracks in the rocks, but on the
floor of the forest we find a thick hedge of Solanum, Myrtaceae and Rubiaceae among various grasses of the family of Paniceae,
and many Cyperaceae,
among which Scleriaceae,
known by type as Titirica, hinder your feet with the tenacity
of their stalks.
There is a remarkable abundance of ferns
both in the trees and rocks and on the shadowy ground; now they let their
dense fronds hang down loosely, such as Nephrolepsis
neglecta, now they spread out fully, such as Asplenium
nidus. Rarely we also spot among them a Dendropteris (3), or a fern-like tree (such
as Alsophila paleolata,
hirta, etc.). Most ferns seek the shadows of the primeval forest;
others, however, such as Lindsayae,
which are noteworthy for their sometimes pale color, gather in groves
or on steep hills.
 
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