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#31 Jaca tree from whose shade you see Rio and Guanabara bay
Latin translation by
Ben Hennelly
When our blessed friend Benjamin Mary, through whose service the physiognomy
of Brazil's
plants is so skillfully illustrated, presented this picture to us, he
added that he sketched it from a garden, or "Quinta" from which you see nearby part of the
magnificent Carioca aqueduct, the dwelling-place of Lazarus (1),
and some of the city and port of Rio
de Janeiro. But he depicted with singular care the tree Artocarpus
integrifolia (2) which
profusely and with great vigor extends both a brownish stem and branches
that stretch out far with thickness, and are equally noteworthy for
both the fullness of their generous foliage and their abundance of fruit.
Concerning this remarkable tree, brought into Brazil from East
India, a whole troop of parasitic Orchideae wanders through the tree. The lovely mulitude of orchids appears here
with such variety that we might easily agree with the illustrator, Benjamin
Mary, who saidthat, at the time of bloom, this one tree was for him
as good as an entire flowering garden.
  
Cattleya fragrans and Cattleya Forbesii
Cattleyae Forbesii and Cattleyae Loddigesii, Oncidium iridifolium and other species of this genus, Maxillaria
Harrisoniae, Epidendron fragrans,
and species of Aspasia, Gomeza and Pleurothallis,
in as much as they are pseudo- parasites, present themselves frequently
to us throughout the forests of Rio
de Janeiro. They are probably also in this picture, but on
account of the smallness of the figures cannot be classified into their
orders. Pseudo-parasitic Epidendreae are perhaps more numerous here than ground-dwelling Orchideae,
to which Aubert du Petit Thouars gave the name Satyriones .
#31 of 42 expedition commentaries
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