Palm trees of the Amazon and their uses

Wha ain
i aaee
he 5

; nytt '
fy %,

Sree re ae
i Pe aa EOD
a a a i ST lhe eee —— ae &
a nee ante oss

Wehey W, WEN hare
SU ae AB eK ras

hpi

eR
year

1 Aly

iy pray

‘ i
Ni tia
aN ;
i
Va i) OL

ya Mi H ;

oa

SUA,
SY |

é ]
men

Eguator

PALM TREES OF THE AMAZON

AND THEIR USES.

BY

ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE.

WITH FORTY-EIGHT PLATES.

LONDON:
JOHN VAN VOORST, 1 PATERNOSTER ROW.
1853.

PRINTED BY TAYLOR AND FRANCIS,
RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET.

KOBE

PREFACE.

THE materials for this work were collected during my
travels on the Amazon and its tributaries from 1848 to
1852. Though principally occupied with the varied
and interesting animal productions of the country, I yet
found time to examine and admire the wonders of
vegetable life which everywhere abounded. In the vast
forests of the Amazon valley, tropical vegetation is to
be seen in all its luxuriance. Huge trees with but-
tressed stems, tangled climbers of fantastic forms, and
strange parasitical plants everywhere meet the admiring
gaze of the naturalist fresh from the meadows and
heaths of Europe. Everywhere too rise the graceful

Palms, true denizens of the tropics, of which they are

iV PREFACE.

the most striking and characteristic feature. In the
districts which I visited they were everywhere abundant, ’
and I soon became interested in them, from their great
variety and beauty of form and the many uses to which
they are applied. I first endeavoured to familiarize
myself with the aspect of each species and to learn to
know it by its native name; but even this was not a
very easy matter, for I was often unable to see any dif-
ference between trees which the Indians assured me
were quite distinct, and had widely different properties
and uses. More close examination, however, convinced
me that external characters did exist by which every
species could be separated from those most nearly allied
to it, and I was soon pleased to find that I could di-
stinguish one palm from another, though barely visible
above the surrounding forest, almost as certainly as the
natives themselves. I then endeavoured to define the
peculiarities of form or structure which gave to each its
individual character, and made accurate sketches and
descriptions to impress them upon my memory. These
peculiarities are often very slight, though permanent :—
in the roots, the extent to which they appear above the
ground ;—in the stem, the thickness, which in each

species varies within very definite limits, —the swelling of

PREFACE. V

the base, the middle or the summit,—its generally erect
or curving position,—the nature of the rings with which
it is marked,—the number, direction and form of the
spines or tubercles with which it is armed ;—in the
leaves, the erect or drooping position, the size and form
of the leaflets, the angles which they form with the
midrib, and the proportionate size of the terminal pair,
are all important characters. The fruit spike or spadix
is either erect or drooping, either simple, forked, or many-
branched ; and the fruits in closely allied species vary
in size, in shape, and in colour, as well as in the bloom,
down, hairs or tubercles with which they are clothed.

In this little work careful engravings from my original
drawings are given, with a general description of each
species, and a history from personal observation of the
various uses to which it is applied, and of any other
interesting particulars connected with it. Several of
the species here figured are new, and among them is
the Palm which produces the “ piassdba,” the coarse
fibrous material of which brooms for street-sweeping
are now generally made.

For the determination of the genera and species,.and
for that part of the Introduction relating to the botanical

characters and geographical distribution of Palms, I am

vi PREFACE.

indebted to the magnificent work of Dr. Martius. To
the botanist I trust my little book may be of some use,
m giving accurate figures of many entire plants, of
which he is only acquainted with small portions, and in
supplying an account of the uses to which they are
applied in the distant regions where they grow. And
to the general reader I hope it may not be uninteresting,
as exhibiting a glimpse of a wild and rude people in
the lowest state of civilization, whose existence is inti-
mately connected with the products of the surrounding
forests, among which the plants under consideration
hold so prominent a place; and of these it is hoped the
accompanying Plates will give a more accurate idea
than the stereotyped figures which often represent the
“feathery palm trees’ in our popular works.

Some of the fruits of which I had no drawings, have
been figured from specimens in the Museum at Kew
collected by Mr. R. Spruce, who is still imvestigating
the Botany of the Amazon valley.

London, October 1853.

LIST OF PLATES.

: Plate
Map showing the distribution of Palms in America (Frontis-

Eset einn reacts th 5 cache excnene Wuoeeetnd aks BAN ae stash

Fruits of Palms, containing,

1. Raphia teedigera.
. Mauritia flexuosa.
. Manicaria saccifera.
. Lepidocaryum tenue (all of the natural size)...... 2
. Astrocaryum tucuma.

6. Leopoldinia pulchra.
Fruits of Palms, containing,

1. Attalea spectabilis.

2. Maximiliana regia.

3. Spathe of Maximiliana regia (reduced) ............ 3

4. Guilielma speciosa (all of the natural size).
Meera Pualehird 3.065. .20 cad ces ceseeesdeeTT aide seseeccessee et i
major ...... eduste ddiacvasbd vevaweonauieninctgs = geek nan teduaadenee 5
BPR MEM econ ge tC woe cnc nnt ol aos Sean Pacadse ton arannn deere mers 6
PNRM OMB O Coo 2 nian separ atnocodarsxtaessseensscs cusps deuneaths r}
eRIMEMA ys i eaice'skcuScoiee ufeaamtw doers dusse stgie neva craze saee
Meme anER AS CORD sacs. c000sctee ta ten teh Fanek ccteom sakes tnot othe 9
UREN AA WEIR LETHE ) 05 vast ae ntann ows stakes iacdvaesedwics’ anoeta 10
—— batawa (with arrow and quiver) .sc..sseresceeesesees 10, 11
MERGE ACRORIIZA coc 020 ovecedaccescsesses Mapibge wos Sete ees caslese's selene es 12
eethes Oe Mil WR Phe a PE. Finca ssn acne ela cswendedanewed tocessot vee rey 13
Trmartea ventricosa (with a fruit) .2.c<..sccecscessccsceccnccssess 14
setigera (with fruit and Gravatana)......-secsceeeseseeeees 15
Raphia tedigera....... SastwkudeWeidewduts<acheaadaves ses Sea veseoeane 16
a Mameiiia fexuosa (with. a leaf) .-..0:.ccocsesstersciseseccserrecces by,
PERRIN ic edt hiwax'e tee basins Pave se acwaatedentanceeveseusassene 18
Pee MRITIOALIL putida o.oo <a ricels 50 ¥esondsedasancactiecanewsensuevags sors ae 19
Pa PTAGUIS oe csce ce ovvnntasassencescvarcscnucessseureestavaecsenrees 20

See MME) a sade D> Shgr'as'ean acs te cdnaunsaalcmh este) osccSesase sas te 21

vill LIST OF PLATES,

Plate

Lepidocaryum tenue ....sceesccccseeeecrseeecesenectseaseetenccees o 22
Geonoma multiflora (With frutit) ...ccccccesscsseeccsvccesesseeees 23
paniculigera ......seeeeee. Guba» catina sie ovsedpareeac diane 24
rectifolia (with fruit) .....cccccccceccesscccovcccccnsssevenws 25
Manicaria saccifera (with a spathe) .ee.scsccseseseeeereees evens ame
Desmoncus macroacanthus (with a fruit) .....6. S32 decneomae 27
Bactris pectinata (with a fruit) .......cesseeeeeeeevenecneeeeeneenes 28
DUGs,) Lasave sake tvcsa+ tase suaiaacs toaha scents ole¥eta ema 29

——— €]atiOr ...scereceeeees egndusnagiloet sus vent eae y +cs peace eamen 30
aa nS:dwith’ a leaGel) cic ivcitcugh 1s 00cesnan sien Oe ae 31
macrocarpa (with a fruit and leaflet) ......... .+ octagon 32

-—— tenuis (With spadix) ..cccccscccscerccereseecteseceseseeceecess 33
Mis PHEMPGHS secciusnsechessccrecesreted a ve ghia Ch gael eas aan
intepriWGlifsec..cacstuters-scsesesiseesceens sco Ba ites ance 35
Guilielma speciosa (with Uaupes Indian’s house) ..........+ 36
Acrocomia lasiospatha (with fruit) .........sscecececneeeeeeeenes 3 Hf
Astrocaryum murumuru (with fruit and part of leaf)......... 38
= PYMACANTHUM 0... .ececstessececscerenatcsecessecscsaaseeces 39
———— VUIZATE ...rsscceccscccssrseccersonsecsenecseseresscatovecarasces 40
tueuma (witli young plant) \....025.. 22.05 cevkdpccceseamee 4]
AUMGNT Ay ais coc n> eh as fns oo s+ Sasawapeniassscys sats SnaeardesaNeEne 42
BCUMCALUME a, fccss ances. .ccaacetveensestes sus cageweeagenegecass 43
acaule (with spadix and fruit) ........ osees ae Bice Se aee 44
Fiuaile (Wik OO): es ckae vc ccc ss open seas sas samianaas 45
Attala pe ChOSe iia geese. co scecsegis cccticeseeds fObsscnsudaenrammient 46
NPAKINUM AVA FOP «s,s: cose cegesap «Su giaes apeieh « Pbeceg het tte 47
COCOS NUCHCLA ce. ciniia.- cuss ceqgeesnceghaabe agit skein. aaa 48

PALM FRUITS

ss
-

ot.
3.Manicaria saccifera. 4iLepidocaryum. temie. ,
5. Astrocaryum. tucuma 6.Leopoldinia pulchra

1. Raphia, taedigera. 2.Mauritia flexuosa.

Petit PALM. FRUITS:

&
i
a
z
Z
¥
i

QW. Bitch. lith. ; - Ford & West Imp.
‘ , , _ A
lg\ilalea spectabilis. 2. Maximiliana refia.
2 o.Spethe of M regia.» 4Guilielma speciosa
5. lriartea exorhiza. »

® - e
:

a

PALM TREES OF THE AMAZON

AND THEIR USES.

INTRODUCTION.

PALMS are endogenous or ingrowing plants, belonging
to the same great division of the Vegetable Kingdom
as the Grasses, Bamboos, Lilies and Pineapples, and
not to that which contains all our English forest trees.
They are perennial, not annual like most of the above-
named plants, and probably reach a great age. ‘Their
stems.are simple or very rarely forked, slender, erect,
and cylindrical, not tapermg as in most other trees ;
they are hardest on the outside, and are marked more or
less distinctly with scars or rings, marking the situation
of the fallen leaves.

The leaves are generally terminal, forming a bunch
or head at the summit of the tree; they are of very
large size, have long petioles or footstalks, and are
alternately placed on the stem. In shape they are
pinnate or flabellate, or rarely simple, sheathing at the
base, without stipules; and they have a plicate verna-
tion, or are folded up lengthways before they open.
The margins of the sheathing bases of the leaf-stalks

B

2 PALM TREES

are often fibrous, and give out a variety of singular
processes.

The flowers are numerous, small, symmetrical, un-
coloured, or obscurely so, six-parted, and hermaphrodite
or polygamous. They are produced in a spadix from
the axils of the leaves, and are generally enclosed in a
spathe or sheath. The ovary or seed-vessel is three-
celled or three-lobed, but the fruit is generally one-
seeded from abortion, and the seed is large and albu-
minous with a fibrous or fleshy covering.

Palms are almost exclusively tropical plants, very
few species being found in the temperate zone, and
those only in the warmer parts of it, while the nearer
we approach the equator the more numerous they
become both in species and individuals. Dr. Martius,
a Prussian botanist and traveller in South America, has
published a magnificent work in three folio volumes,
entirely devoted to the Botanical history of this family
of plants. He divides the portion of the earth which
produces palms into five regions, namely,—

The North Palm Zone, extending from the northern
limit of Palms to the tropic of Cancer.

The transition North Palm Zone, from the tropic of
Cancer to 10° north latitude.

The Chief Palm Zone, from 10° north to 10° south
latitude.

The transition South Palm Zone, from 10° south
latitude to the tropic of Capricorn, and

The South Palm Zone, from the tropic of Capricorn
to the southern limit of the family.

OF THE AMAZON. 3

The Northern limit of Palms is, in Europe 43° of
latitude, in Asia 34°, and in America 34°.

The Southern limit is 34° in Africa, 38° in New
Zealand, and 36° in South America.

To the north of the tropic of Cancer there are 43
species of Palms known, and to the south of the
tropic of Capricorn only 13, while as we advance
from either side towards the equator the number in-
creases, until in the Chief Zone, between 10° north
and 10° south latitude, there are more than 300
species (see Frontispiece Map).

In the Old World, the rich islands of the Eastern
Archipelago produce the greatest number of Palms; in
the New, the great valleys of the Amazon and Orinoco
on the main land, are most prolific.

In proportion to its extent, America is the most pro-
ductive palm country; for while the Old World, in-
cluding Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Eastern Archi-
pelago, with New Holland and all the Pacific Islands,
contain 307 species, the New World or America alone
has 275 different kinds.

In the Old World the islands produce more species
than the continents, the former containing 194, while
the latter have only 113.

In the New World, however, the reverse is the case,
the continent there containing 234, while the islands

possess only 42 kinds of Palms.

_ The total number of Palms at present known is less

than 600. Dr. Martius thinks that the probable num-

ber existing on the earth may be from 1000 to 1200;
B2

4, PALM TREES

though, as similar calculations have hitherto almost in-
variably been proved, as our knowledge increased, to be
far below the truth, it is not unlikely that a few years
may render double this number a more probable esti-
mate.

Palms present to our view the most graceful and
picturesque, as well as some of the most majestic forms
in the vegetable kingdom. Though many of them have
a sameness of aspect, yet there is a sufficient contrast
and variety of forms to render them interesting objects
in the landscape. The stems in some species do not
appear above the ground, in others they rise to the
height of 200 feet; some resemble reeds and are no
thicker than a goose quill, others swell out to the bulk
of a hogshead. There are climbing palms too, which
trail their long flexible stems over trees and shrubs, or
hang in tangled festoons between them.

The trunks of some are almost perfectly smooth,
others rough with concentric rings, or clothed with a
woven or hairy fibrous covering, which binds together
the sheathing bases of the fallen leaves. Many are
thickly beset with cylindrical or flat spines, often 8 or
10 inches long and as sharp as a needle; and the
fallen leaves and stems of these offer a serious obstacle
to the traveller who attempts to penetrate the tropical
forests.

The leaves are large and often gigantic, surpassing
those of any other family of plants. In some species
they are 50 feet long and 8 wide; these are pmnate or
composed of numerous long narrow leaflets placed at

OF THE AMAZON. 5

right angles to the midrib, but in others the leaves are
entire and undivided, and yet are 30 feet or more in
length and 4 or 5 in width. But the most remarkable
form of leaf is the fan-shaped, which characterizes a con-
siderable number of species, and gives them such a
completely different aspect, as to render it, to ordinary
observers, the most palpable feature dividing the whole
family into two distinct groups. The Palms having
fan-shaped leaves are, however, comparatively few, bemg
only 91 out of 582 known species.

The flowers are small and inconspicuous, generally of
a white, pale yellow or green colour, but often produced
in such dense masses as to have a striking appearance.
They sometimes emit a very powerful odour, which
attracts swarms of minute insects; and a newly-burst
palm spathe may often be discovered by the buzzing
cloud of small flies and beetles which hover over it.

The fruits are generally small, when compared with
the size of the trees; the common cocoa-nut being one
of the largest in the whole family. The*kernel of many
is too hard to be eaten, and the outer covering is often
fibrous or woody; but in others the seeds are covered
with a pulpy or farinaceous mass, which in most cases
furnishes a grateful and nutritious food.

The purposes to which the different parts of Palms
are applied are very various, the fruit, the leaves, and
the stem all havimg many uses in the different species.
Some of them produce valuable articles of export to our
own and other countries, but they are of far more value
to the natives of the districts where they grow, in many

6 ,PALM TREES

cases furnishing the most important necessaries “for
existence.

The Cocoa-nut is known to us only as an agreeable
fruit, and its fibrous husk supplies us with matting,
coir ropes, and stuffing for mattresses ; but in its native’
countries it serves a hundred purposes ; food and drink
and oil are obtained from its fruit, hats and baskets are
made of its fibre, huts are covered with its leaves, and
its leaf-stalks are applied to a variety of uses. To us
the Date is but an agreeable fruit, but to the Arab it is
the very staff of life; men and camels almost live upon
it, and on the abundance of the date harvest depends
the wealth and almost the existence of many desert
tribes. It is truly indigenous to those inhospitable
wastes of burning sand, which without it would be un-
inhabitable by man.

A palm tree of Africa, the 4leis guianensis, gives us
oil and candles. It inhabits those parts of the country
where the slave trade is carried on, and it is thought by
persons best aéquainted with the subject that the ex-
tension of the trade in palm oil will be the most effec-
tual check to that inhuman traffic ; so that a palm tree
may be the means of spreading the blessings of eivili-
zation and humanity among the persecuted negro race.

Sago is another product of a palm, which is of com-
paratively little importance to us, but in the East sup-
plies the daily food of thousands. In many parts of the
Indian Archipelago it forms almost the entire subsist-
ence of the people, taking the place of rice in Asia, corn
in Europe, and maize and mandiocca in America, and

-

OF THE AMAZON. é

is worthy to be classed with these the most precious
gifts of nature to mankind. Unlike them, however, it
is neither seed nor root, but is the wood itself, the
pithy centre of the stem, requiring scarcely any prepa-
ration to fit it for food; and it is so abundant that a
single tree often yields six hundred pounds weight.

The canes used for chair bottoms and various other
purposes, are the stems of species of Calamus, slender
palms which abound in the East Indian jungles, climbing
over other trees and bushes by the help of the long
hooked spines with which their leaves are armed. They
sometimes reach the enormous length of 600 or even
1000 feet, and as four millions of them are imported
into this country annually, a great number of persons
must find employment in cutting them.

A variety of species, in all parts of the world, furnish a
sugary sap from their stems or unopened spathes, which
when_partly fermented is the palm wine of Africa and
the Toddy of the East Indies; and a similar beverage
is procured from the Mauritia vinifera and other species
in South America. Indeed, at the mouth of the Orimoco
dwell a nation of Indians whose existence depends
almost entirely on a species of Palm, supposed to be
the Mauritia flecuosa. They build their houses elevated
on its trunks, and live principally upon its fruit and
sap, with fish from the waters around them.

Among the most singular products of palm trees are
the resins and wax produced by some species. The
fruits of a species of Calamus of the Eastern Archipelago
are covered with a resinous substance of a red colour,

8 PALM TREES

which, in common with a similar product from some
other trees, is the Dragon’s blood of commerce, and is
used as a pigment, for varnish, and in the manufacture
of tooth powder. The Ceroxylon andicola, a lofty palm
growing in the Andes of Bogota, produces a resinous
wax which is secreted in its stem and used by the in-
habitants of the country for making candles and for
other purposes. Again, in some of the northern pro-
vinces of Brazil is found a palm tree called Carnatba,
the Copernicia cerifera, having the underside of its
leaves covered with white wax, which has no admixture
of resin, but is as pure as that procured from our hives.

The leaves of palms, however, are applied to the
greatest variety of uses; thatch for houses, umbrellas,
hats, baskets and cordage in countless varieties are made
from them, and every tropical country possesses some
species adapted to these varied purposes, which in tem-
perate zones are generally supplied by a very different
class of plants. The Chip, or Brazilian-grass hats, so
cheap in this country, are made from the leaves of a
palm tree which grows in Cuba, whence they are im-
ported for the purpose: the palm is the Chamerops
argentea ; and in Sicily an allied species, the Chamerops
humilis (the only European palm), is apphed in a similar
manner to form hats, baskets, and a variety of useful
articles.

The papyrus of the ancient Egyptians, and the me-
tallic plates on which other nations wrote, were not
used in India, but their place was supplied by the leaves
of palms, on whose hard and glossy surface the charac-

OF THE AMAZON. 9

ters of the Pali and Sanscrit languages were inscribed
with a metallic pot. The leaves of the Corypha taliera
are used for this purpose, and when strung together,
form the volumes of a Hindu library.

A favourite stimulant too of the Malays is furnished
by apalm. The fruit of the Areca catechu is the betel-
nut, which they chew with lime, and which is their
substitute for the opium of the Chinese, the tobacco of
Europeans, and the coca of the South Americans.

' One of the most recent introductions into our own
domestic economy is the fibre of a palm, the Piassaba,
which is now generally used for coarse brooms and
brushes ; and in the valley of the Amazon, of which it
is a native, the same material is manufactured into
cables, which are cheap and very durable in the water.

We have now glanced at a few of the most important
uses to which Palms are applied, but in order to be able to
appreeiate how much the native tribes of the countries
where they most aboundaredependent on this noble family
of plants, and how they take part in some form or other
in almost every action of the Indian’s hfe, we must
enter into his hut and inquire into the origin and struc-
ture of the various articles we shall see around us.

Suppose then we visit an Indian cottage on the banks
of the Rio Negro, a great tributary of the river Amazon
in South America. The main supports of the building
are trunks of some forest tree of heavy and durable
wood, but the light rafters overhead are formed by the
straight cylindrical and uniform stems of the Jara palm.
The roof is thatched with large triangular leaves, neatly

10 PALM TREES

arranged in regular alternate rows, and bound to the
rafters with sipdés or forest creepers; the leaves are
those of the Carané palm. The door of the house is a
framework of thin hard strips of wood neatly thatched
over; it 1s made of the split stems of the Pashitiba
palm. Inone corner stands a heavy harpoon for catching
the cow-fish ; it is formed of the black wood of the
Pashiiba barriguda. By its side is a blowpipe ten or
twelve feet long, and a little quiver full of small poi-
soned arrows hangs up near it ; with these the Indian
procures birds for food, or for their gay feathers, or
even brings down the wild hog or the tapir, and it is
from the stem and spines of two species of Palms that
they are made. His great bassoon-like musical instru-
ments are made of palm stems; the cloth in which he
wraps his most valued feather ornaments is a fibrous
palm spathe, and the rude chest in which he keeps his
treasures 1s woven from palm leaves. His hammock,
his bow-string and his fishing-line are from the fibres
of leaves which he obtains from different palm trees,
according to the qualities he requires in them,—the
hammock from the Miriti, and the bow-strmg and
fishing-line from the Tucim. The comb which he wears
on his head is ingeniously constructed of the hard bark
of a palm, and he makes fish hooks of the spines, or uses
them to puncture on his skin the peculiar markings of
his tribe. His children are eating the agreeable red
and yellow fruit of the Pupunha or peach palm, and
from that of the Assai he has prepared a favourite drink,
which he offers you to taste. That carefully suspended

OF THE AMAZON. 11

gourd contains oil, which he has extracted from the
fruit of another species; and that long elastic plaited
cylinder used for squeezing dry the mandiocca pulp to
make his bread, is made of the bark of one of the sin-
gular climbing palms, which alone can resist for a con-
siderable time the action of the poisonous juice. In
each of these cases a species is selected better adapted
than the rest for the peculiar purpose to which it is
applied, and often having several different uses which
no other plant can serve as well, so that some little idea
may be formed of how important to the South American
Indian must be these noble trees, which supply so many
daily wants, giving him his house, his food, and his
. Weapons.

To the lover of nature Palms offer a constant source
of interest, reminding him that he is amidst the luxu-
riant vegetation of the tropics, and offering to him the
realization of whatever wild and beautiful ideas he has
from childhood associated with their name.

In the equatorial regions of South America they are
seldom absent. Hither delicate species flourishing in
the dense shade of the virgin forest ; or lofty and mas-
sive, standing erect on the river’s banks; or on the hill
side raismg their leafy crowns on airy stems above the
surrounding trees, creating, as Humboldt styles it, “a
forest above a forest ;”? m every situation some are to
be met with as representatives of the magnificent and
regal family to which they belong.

In the following pages the genera and species are
arranged in the order adopted by Dr. Martius in his
elaborate work already alluded to.

12 PALM TREES

NaturRAL OrnpER PALMACE.
Genus LEOPOLDINIA, Martius.

This genus is characterized by having flowers con-
taining stamens or pistils only, intermingled on the
same spadix, and by not having a spathe. The male
flowers have six stamens and no rudiments of a stigma.
The female flowers have three sessile stigmas and rudi-
mentary stamens. The spadix is much-branched and
decomposed.

The species are trees of a moderate size without any
spines or tubercles, but remarkable for the netted fibres
which spring from the margins of the sheathing petioles,
and cover the stem half-way down or sometimes even.
to its base. The leaves are terminal and pinnate, the
leaflets spreading out regularly in one plane. There
are often three or four spadices on a tree, bearing
abundance of small flowers, and ovate compressed fruit,
the outer covering of which is fleshy.

Four species are known, and they are all found in
the same limited district near the Rio Negro, some ex-
tending to the tributaries of the Orinoco near its
source, and one being found south of the Amazon nearly
opposite the mouth of the Rio Negro. All however
grow on the banks or in the immediate vicinity of black-
water streams, which occur more extensively in South
America than in any other part of the globe. Two
species are described by Martius, one of which is here
figured with two others, which are believed to be new.
They are not found more than 1000 feet above the level
of the sea.

a el

=a
S Ves b
ej

a

— pet oa
«Ka ee

W. Fitch ith Ford & West. Imp.

LEOPOLDINIA PULCHRA. Ht.12 kt.

OF THE AMAZON. 13

PLATE IV.

LEOPOLDINIA PULCHRA, Vartius.
Jara, Lingoa Geral.

Tue Jara or Jara miri (little Jara) is from ten to fifteen
feet high. The stem is cylindrical, erect, and about
two inches in diameter. The leaves are very regularly
pinnate, about four feet long, with the leaflets slightly
drooping and the terminal pair small. The leaf-stalks
are slender and the sheathing bases are persistent, giving
out from their margins abundance of flat fibrous pro-
cesses which are curiously netted and interlaced together,
clothing the stem with a firm covering often down to
the very base. At the lower part this gradually rots
and is rubbed away or falls off, leaving the stem bare.
The flower-stalks or spadices are numerous, and very
large and much branched; and the fruits are about an
inch in diameter, oval and flattened, and of a pale green-
ish-yellow colour. The outer covering is firm and fleshy,
and has a very bitter taste.

This species is found on the banks of the Rio Negro
and some of its tributaries, from its mouth up to its
source, and on the black-water tributaries of the
Orinoco. It never grows far from the water’s edge,
though generally out of reach of the floods in the wet
season. It is not known to occur beyond this very
limited district.

The stem of this tree being very smooth and cylin-

C

14 PALM TREES

drical, and of a convenient length, it is much used for
fencing round yards and gardens, and in the city of
Barra do Rio Negro is universally employed for such
purposes. The want of neatness out of doors, which is
quite a characteristic of the Portuguese and Indian
settlers on the Amazon, is always apparent in these
fences. It is never thought worth while to cut the
poles all to one length, but they are set up just as they
are brought in from the forest; and the space between
two handsome houses in the city may often be seen
filed up with a Jara railing of most unpicturesque
irregularity.

The bright green and glossy foliage of this tree also
renders it suitable for another purpose. On certain
saints’ days, little altars and green avenues are made
before the principal houses in Barra, the Jara palm
being always used to construct them; and its graceful
fronds rustling in the evening breeze, fitfully reflecting
the light of the wax tapers which burn before the image
of the saint, with the blazing torches of the rustic pro-
cession, have a very pleasing effect.

The reticulate covering of the stem of this and the
next species offers a fine station for the epiphytal
Orchideze to attach themselves, and the Jara palms are’
accordingly often adorned with their curious and orna- _
mental flowers. |

Plate II. figure 6. represents a fruit of this “pea
of the natural size. ;

Uff p>.
Ah AN i, v (ins :
Uh Hi) Ui » M We Ce RQ
ae x ane |
\ \\ aaa \
| ‘) ie ™
re
\ W
\f

ae
a *
eseimusensticaea

Sos,

LEGPOL.DINTA® MAJOR. “Hi 2) Te

OF THE AMAZON. 15

PLATE V.

LEOPOLDINIA MAJOR, N. sp.
Jara assu, Lingoa Geral.

Tue Jara asst or “ greater Jara” closely resembles the
last species, but it is considerably larger. The stem is
four inches in diameter and reaches thirty feet in height,
[t is often much thicker at the bottom than in the upper
part, and has a greater proportion of the stem bare.
The leaves are very similar, but the spadices are larger,
and the fruit is also larger and much more abundant.

This tree occurs plentifully on the iakes and inlets of
the upper Rio Negro, but is not found at the mouth of
the river like the last species. It grows too at a lower
level, being often found with a part of the stem under
water. ~

The Indians collect the fruit in large quantities, and
by burning and washing extract a floury substance,
which they use as a substitute for salt when they cannot
procure that article. They assert positively that the
smaller species of Jara will not yield the same product ;
but perhaps this may be only because the fruit is less
abundant, and they do not take the trouble to collect it.

Coarse Portugal salt is used in the Rio Negro, and
among the Indians in the upper part of the river serves
as a circulating medium, about a pound of it being
reckoned equivalent to a day’s work. The supply how-
ever is very uncertain, and there are many distant

C2

16 PALM TREES

tribes which it scarcely ever reaches; and it is among
them that the substitute is manufactured from the fruit
of the Jara. It is doubtful, however, whether it con-
tains any true salt, for it is described as being more
bitter than saline in taste; yet with this alone to season
their fish and cassava the Indians enjoy almost perfect
health. Perhaps, therefore, mmeral salt may not be such
a necessary of life as we are accustomed to consider it.

~~
SX Se i \ if
a = Win?! \ pF 0p —==
——r . I I \ Pili ——<—<—=-
EY A <>
NN )

Z QA — SSS LY \ 4 |

>,

\

WA,
“hj
Y

\

\\

FS

=p a
: WE —— =
il SES
CES

w
aN

&
o* is

Ni

Ve

a =

— SS

SS
gee
OT RIN tg
ae <<
oma
et:
—
=
aes

W Pitch Jith Fora. & Wese imp

LEOPOLDINIA PIASSABAY He. 26:

OF THE AMAZON. ivs

PLATE VI.

LEOPOLDINIA PIASSABA, D.. sp.

Piassaba, Lingoa Geral. Chiquichiqui, Barré. [An
Indian language spoken on the Upper Rio Negro in
Venezuela. |

Turs tree, the “ Piassaba” of Brazil and the “ Chiqui-
chiqu”’ of Venezuela, I have little hesitation in referring
to the genus Leopoldinia, though I have never seen it
in flower or in fruit. The texture and form of the
leaves, the peculiar branching of the spadix, and the
extraordinary development of the fibres from the mar-
gins of the sheathing petioles, show it to be very closely
allied to the other species of this genus.

The stem is generally short, but reaches twenty to
thirty.feet in height, and is much thicker than in either
of the preceding species. The leaves are very large
and regularly pinnate, with the pinne gradually smaller
to the end, as in the two former species. The leaflets are
rigid, broadest in the middle, and gradually tapering to
a fine point, spreading out flat on each side of the mid-
rib, but shghtly drooping at the tips. The petioles are
slender and smooth. The spadix is large, excessively
branched and drooping, and there are often several on
the same tree. The marginal processes of the petioles
are interlaced as in the two former species, and are pro-
duced into long riband-hke strips, which afterwards
split into fine fibres, and hang down five or six feet,

18 PALM TREES

entirely concealing the stem, and giving the tree a most
curious and unique appearance. The leaves form an
excellent thatch, and are almost universally used in
that portion of Venezuela situated on the upper Rio
Negro, and the adjacent tributaries of the Orinoco.
The fruit is said to resemble that of the Jaré in colour,
but it is globose and eatable, being used principally to
form a thick drink by washing off the outer coating of
pulp.

The fibrous or hairy covering of the stem is an ex-
tensive article of commerce in the countries in which it
grows. It seems to have been used by the Brazilians
from a very early period to form cables for the canoes
navigating the Amazon. It 1s well adapted for this
purpose, as it is light (the cables made of it not sinking
in water) and very durable. It twists readily and firmly
into cordage from the fibres being rough-edged, and as
it is very abundant, and is procured and manufactured
by the Indians, piassaba ropes are much cheaper than
any other kind of cordage. The price in the city of
Barra in June 1852, was 400 reis or 1s. for 82 lbs. of
the fibre, and 800 reis or 2s. for every inch in circum-
ference of a cable sixty fathoms long, which is the
standard length they are all made to.

Before the independence of Brazil, the Portuguese
government had a factory at the mouth of the Paduari,
one of the tributaries of the Rio Negro, for the purpose
of making these cables for the use of the Parda arsenal,
and as a government monopoly. Till within these few
years the fibre was all manufactured into cordage on

OF THE AMAZON. 19

the spot, but it is now taken down in long conical bun-
dles for exportation from Para to England, where it is
generally used for street sweeping and house brooms,
and will probably soon be applied to many other pur-
poses. It is cut with knives by men, women and
children, from the upper part of the younger trees, so
as to secure the freshest fibres, the taller trees which have
only the old and half-rotten portion within reach, being
left untouched. It is said to grow again in five or six
years, the fibres being produced at the bases of the new
leaves. The trees are much infested by venomous snakes,
a species of Craspedocephalus, and the Indians are not
unfrequently bitten by them when at work, and some-
times with fatal consequences.

The distribution of this tree is very peculiar. It
erows in swampy or partially flooded lands on the
banks of black-water rivers. It is first found on the
river PRadauari, a tributary of the Rio Negro on its
northern side, about 400 miles above Barra, but whose
waters are not so black as those of the Rio Negro.
The Piassaba is found from near the mouth to more
than a hundred miles up, where it ceases. On the
banks of the Rio Negro itself not a tree is to be seen.
The next river, the Daraha, also contains some. The
next two, the Maraviha and Cababuris, are white-water
rivers, and have no Piassaba. On the S. bank, though
all the rivers are black water, there is no Piassaba till
we reach the Marié, not far below St. Gabriel. Here it
is extensively cut for about a hundred miles up, but there
is still none immediately at the mouth or on the banks

20 PALM TREES

of the Rio Negro. The next rivers, the Curicuriari, the
ereat river Uaupés, and the Isdnna, though all black-
water, have none; while further on, in the Xié, it again
appears. On entering Venezuela it is found near the
banks of the Rio Negro, and is abundant all up to its
sources, and in the Témi and Atabapo, black-water
tributaries of the Orinoco. This seems to be its
northern limit, and I cannot hear of its again appear-
ing in any part of the Amazon or Orinoco or their
tributaries. It is thus entirely restricted to a district
about 800 miles from N. to 8. and an equal distance
from E. to W. I am enabled so exactly to mark out
its range, from having resided more than two years in
various parts of the Rio Negro, among people whose
principal occupation consisted in obtaining the fibrous
covering of this tree, and from whom no locality for it
can have remained undiscovered, assisted as they are
by the Indians, whose home is the forest, and who are
almost as well acquainted with its trackless depths as
we are with the well-beaten roads of our own island.
The fibre imported into this country has been sup-
posed to be produced only by the Aftalea funifera, a
species not found in the Amazon district. In the
London Journal of Botany for 1849, Sir W. Hooker
gave some account of the material, and of the tree pro-
ducing it ; stating that he had received the fruit of the
tree with the fibre from a mercantile house connected
with Brazil, and that the fruit was that of the Attalea
funifera. This species is mentioned by Martius as
furnishing a fibre used for cordage and other purposes

OF THE AMAZON. 21

in Southern Brazil, and he states that it is called
“piacaba” ; so that the Indian name is applied to two
distinct trees producing a similar material in different
localities ; and the two having been brought to England
under the same name and from not very distant ports
of the same country, were naturally supposed to be
produced by the same tree. The greater part, if not all
of the Piassaba now imported, comes, however, from
the Rio Negro, where several hundred tons are cut
annually and sent to Para, from which place scarcely a
vessel sails for England without its forming a part of
her cargo.

[w)
ca)

PALM TREES

Genus EutTerrEL, Gertner.

Male and female flowers intermingled on the same
spadix, the former more abundant in the upper part of
the branches, the latter in the lower. Spathe entire,
membranaceous, fusiform and deciduous. Flowers with
bracts, male with six stamens and a rudimentary pistil,
female with three sessile stigmas. Spadix simply
branched, spreading horizontally.

These are very elegant palms; their stems are lofty,
slender, smooth and faintly ringed. The leaves are
terminal, pinnate, regular, and form a graceful feathery
plume. The bases of the petioles are sheathing for a
long distance down the stem, forming a thick column
three or four feet long, of a green or reddish colour.
The spadices, three or four in number, sprig from
beneath the leaves, and the spathes are very deciduous,
falling to the ground as soon as they open. The fruit
is small, globose, at first green, then violet or black,
and consists of a thin edible pulp covering the hard
seed.

Twelve species are known, inhabiting the West Indies,
Mexico and South America, and there appear to be
three species in the Amazon district, two of which |
have figured. Some prefer marshy grounds near the
level of the sea, others extend up the mountains to a
height of 4000 feet.

INNIS
Y \\ DS

SPAT

ae

tii
angela

-
At hast een eng a een nt meron en
RPA are AENM IAT Li Lad eta L BIS MR eae

mw derecranssanaseriern rears

Pett ae pee ee eee

re

bs
: -
3
== »
Sei Var para aee: , —

= -* Ford & West Imp.

“ EUPERPE OLERACEA. Ht 60 Ft.

OF THE AMAZON. 23

PLATE*V EL.

EUTERPE OLERACEA, Wartius.
Assai, Lingoa Geral.

Tue Assai of Para is a tall and slender tree, from sixty
to eighty feet high, and about four inches in diameter.
The stem is very smooth, of a pale colour, and generally
waving, sometimes very much curved. The leaves are
of moderate size, of a pale bright green, regularly
pinnate, and with the leaflets much drooping. The
column formed by the sheathing bases of the leaves is
of an olive colour. The flowers are small, whitish, and
very thickly set on the simply branched spadix. There
are generally two or three, and sometimes even five or
six spadices, growing out horizontally from a little
below the leaf-column. The spathe is smooth and mem-
branous, and falls off as the spadix opens. The fruit
when ripe is about the size and colour of a sloe. It
consists of a hard albuminous seed, with a rather fibrous
exterior, and a very thin covering of a firm pulp or
flesh.

This species is very abundant in the neighbourhood
of Para, and even in the city itself. It grows in swamps
flooded by the high tides,—never on dry land. Its
straight cylindrical stem is sometimes used for poles
and rafters; but the tree is generally considered too
valuable to be cut down for such purposes. A very
favourite drink is made from the ripe fruit, and daily

24. PALM TREES

vended in the streets of Para. Indian and negro girls
_ may be constantly seen walking about with small earthen
pots on their heads, uttering at intervals a shrill ery of

Assai i. If you call one of these dusky maidens,
she will set down her pot, and you will see it filled with
a thick creamy liquid, of a fine plum colour. A penny-
worth of this will fill a tumbler, and you may then add
a little sugar to your taste, and will find a peculiar nut-
flavoured liquid, which you may not perhaps think a
great deal of at first; but, if you repeat your experience
a few times, you will inevitably become so fond of it as
to consider ‘‘ Assai” one of the greatest luxuries the
place produces. It is generally taken with farinha, the
substitute for bread prepared from the mandiocca root,
and with or without sugar, according to the taste of
the consumer.

During our walks in the suburbs of Pard we had
frequently opportunities of seeing the preparation of
this favourite beverage. Two or three large bunches
of fruit are brought in from the forest. The women of
the house seize upon them, shake and strip them into
a large earthen vessel, and pour on them warm water,
not too hot to bear the hand in. The water soon
becomes tinged with purple, and in about an hour the
outer pulp has become soft enough to rub off. The
water is now most of it poured away, a little cold added,
and a damsel, with no sleeves to turn up, plunges both
hands into the vessel, and rubs and kneads with great
perseverance, adding fresh water as it is required, till
the whole of the purple covering has been rubbed off

OF THE AMAZON. 25

and the greenish stones left bare. The liquid is now
poured through a wicker sieve into another vessel, and
is then ready for use. The smiling hostess will then
fill a calabash, and give you another with farimha to
mix to your taste; and nothing will delight her more
than your emptying your rustic basin and asking her
to refill it.

The inhabitants of Para are excessively attached to
this beverage, and many never pass a day of their lives
without it. They are particularly favoured too, m
being able to get it at all seasons, for though in most
places the trees only bear for a few months once in the
year, yet in the neighbourhood of Para there is so much
variety of soil and aspect, that within a day or two’s
journey, there is always some ripe Assai to supply the
market. Boys climb up the trees to get it, with a cord
round the ankles (as shown on the Plate), and with its
own leaves make a neatly interlaced basket to carry it
home. From the great island of Maraj6, its igaripés *
and marshes, from the rivers Guamé and Moju, from
the thousand islands in the river, and from the vast
palm swamps in the depths of the forest, baskets of the
fruit are brought every morning to the city, where half
the population look to the Assai to supply a daily meal,
and hundreds are said to make it, with farinha, almost
their main subsistence.

The trees of this genus also furnish another article
of food. The undeveloped leaves in the centre of the
column form a white sweetish mass, which when boiled

* A small stream, literally “‘ path of the canoe.”
D

26 PALM TREES

somewhat resembles artichoke or parsnep, and is a very
eood and wholesome vegetable. It may also be eaten
raw, cut up and dressed as a salad with oil and vinegar.
As, however, to obtain it the tree must be destroyed,
it-is not much used in Para, except by travellers in the
forest who have no particular interest in the preserva-
tion of the trees for fruit. The Cabbage Palm of the
West Indies is an allied species, and is used for food in
the same manner.

Very fine specimens of this tree may be seen in the
great Palm House at Kew, where they grow almost as
luxuriantly as in their native forests.

In the Plate, the unopened spathe, flower-spadix and
fruit are represented, as they are often found, together
on the same tree.

EUTERPE ?

On the banks of the Rio Negro there appears to be
another species of this genus, closely allied to the
Euterpe oleracea, but the stem is thicker and straighter,
the whole tree larger, and the leaf-column thicker, and
of a clear green colour. It grows on the dry land of
the virgin forest, or sometimes within the limits of the
winter’s inundations. I unfortunately neglected to
examine into its peculiar characters, as until my return
to Paré I had considered it identical with the species
so common there.

I was also informed that in the island of Marajé
there is a species or variety having white fruit, but I
had no opportunity of examining it.

PL.VII

Ze
Y (Z

———

Yi /MW/
roy jee

=— is Ss Ze
——— SANS FSS>
AA\ WAG SS \ 4

MN...

— -
= —
"CE te

J

=
yy
A

Ford & West Imp.

EUTERPE CATINGA. Ht. 40 Ft.

OF THE AMAZON. rs

PLATE VIII.

EUTERPE CATINGA, N. sp.
Assai de catinga, Lingoa Geral.

Tuts species differs from the last in its slenderer stem
and less drooping leaves and leaflets. It grows to
forty or fifty feet high. The spadices are fewer and
much smaller. The fruit also is smaller, and has more
pulpy matter, so that a small quantity of it makes more
of the “‘ vinho d’Assai” (the Assai wine) than the same
quantity of fruit of the larger kind. The column
formed by the sheathing bases of the leaves is smaller
than in the last species, and always of a red colour.
The roots rise considerably above the ground, forming
a distinct cone, which is not the case in the #. oleracea.
It inhabits the forests on a dry sandy soil, of the Upper
Rio Negro. These districts are called Catinga forests
by the natives, and have very peculiar vegetable pro-
ductions, differing almost entirely from those of the
lofty virgin forest.

The preparation of the fruit of this species is sweeter
and more finely flavoured than that of any other, and
is therefore much sought after, but it takes the produce
of four or five trees to yield as much as a single spadix
of the larger kind will often produce. I found the
fruit ripe in the month of April on the river Uaupés, a
branch of the Rio Negro above the Falls.

D2

28 PALM TREES

Genus GinocarrPus, Wartius.

Male and female flowers on the same spadix, the
former most abundant. Spathe double, the interior
complete, woody, and deciduous. Flowers without
distinct bracts; the male with six stamens and rudi-
ments of a pistil, the female with three sessile stigmas,
but with no rudiment of stamens.

These are tall majestic trees with large smooth stems,
generally distinctly ringed. The leaves are large, ter-
minal, more or less regularly pinnate, and have the
bases expanded and clasping the stem, but not forming
_a sheathing column as in the last genus. The spadices
spring from beneath the leaves and are simply branched;
the branches are very lax, hanging down vertically
except when forced outwards by the ripening fruit.
The spathe is very large, fusiform and woody, and falls
off the moment the spadix escapes from it. The fruit
is small, nearly globular, and has an edible pulpy
covering, like that of the genus Euterpe.

Six species only are known, and all inhabit tropical
America, where they prefer dry, slightly elevated lands,
none being known to extend more than 1600 feet above
the sea.

<
\\

SN

ZEN
lyn

AG

ZZ

A
eS ‘

UW

Gi

=
Say
et

ADA
,

q 05 .

Voy Wea
Viddebet

SS

VO<a
ly; 2

ul 2
eee nab seudee agebetheelaty

3% am

cate ta

iF

Tad & Weat up

* Hitch ath

C

NO

@:

OF THE AMAZON. 29

PLATE IX.
(ENOCARPUS BACCABA, Vartius.
Baccaba, Lingoa Geral.

Tuts is a smooth thick-stemmed handsome tree, faintly
ringed, and reaching fifty or sixty feet in height. The
leaves are large, terminal, and pinnate. The leaflets
are long; gradually pointed, and set at equal distances
along the midrib. When young, the leaves are flat, the
leaflets or pinnz all standing out in the same plane;
but in the full-grown tree the leaflets are in groups of
two or three standing out at different angles from the
general plane of the leaf, so as to give an irregular
mixed appearance to the leaf. The petioles are greatly
dilated at the base where they clasp the ‘stem, and
have a fibrous margin. The leaves as they die fall
clean off from the stem, no part of the base remaining.
The spathe is deciduous, being comparatively seldom
visible. The fruits are of a violet or black colour when
ripe, but are covered with a dense whitish bloom. They
are prepared in the same way as the Assai, but the
pulp is of a pinkish cream-colour instead of purple, and
the liquid is more oily, and of delicious flavour, some-
what resembling filberts and cream. It is said, how-
ever, not to be so wholesome as the Assai, and in
districts where intermittent fevers are prevalent, to
bring them on, and to be particularly hurtful to persons
recovering from that disease. A very beautiful oil is

30 PALM TREES

sometimes extracted from the pulp by pressure; it is
perfectly clear, liquid, and inodorous; and serves as
a substitute for olive oil, as well as being very good for
lamps. The leaves are sometimes used for thatching
when none better can be obtained; but owing to the
irregularity of the pimne before mentioned, they are
not much used.

This species inhabits the dry virgin forests of the
Rio Negro and Upper Amazon. In the lower parts of
that river and in the neighbourhood of Pard it is
replaced by another species, the Ginocarpus distichus.

The Gd. baccdba is growing at Kew.

One figure on the Plate shows the unopened spathe ;
the other has spadices with flowers and fruit.

ZN

7 be A

Ary
KAA XY Oy A
EN Oe NAW. "4 Re} 4; 2
x Mx aN “a ‘ On \ «a aX yee () e
AAACN CAS
4 OC LO ROTIA ¥ snp Om s
<SAA Z ZZ AGL 4 oh HOGA LF of = ae
Lega lof lfcd uff it
L&- SAS, iy, ne
CPS SLE 4
S ‘
LEZ SBF 2
= SS os
€

co
Sj
S
¥
s
03
ie
|
|
|
|
a=
en
{ :
re)
a

BATAWA. Ht.50 Ft

Lek
ae)

EN@GCARPU

13
Be

OF THE AMAZON. he 8

PLATES X. and XI.

(ENOCARPUS BATAWA, Wartius.

Patawa, Lingoa Geral.

Tus species can hardly be distinguished from the
Cinocarpus baccdba when young. In the full-grown
plant, however, the leaves preserve their regularity, the
leaflets spreading out regularly in one plane and having
a very beautiful appearance. The stem in old trees is
fifty or sixty feet high and quite smooth, but in those
growing in the shade of the forest, and in all young
trees, the stem is completely hidden by the persistent
bases of the decayed and fallen leaves. I have figured
a tree in this state (Plate XI.).

The sheathing bases of the petioles give out from
their margins numerous long spinous processes of a
very singular character. They are from eighteen inches
to three feet long, of a black colour, flattish, and gene-
rally broken or fibrous at the poimt. They are much
sought after by the Indians, who use them to make
arrows for their “ gravatanas”’ or blow-pipes. One of
these arrows is here represented with the wicker quiver
in which they are carried. They are about fifteen or
eighteen inches long, sharply pomted at the end, which
is covered with “ curari”’ poison for three or four inches
down, and notched so as to break off in the wound.
Near the bottom a little of the soft down of the silk-
cotton-tree is twisted round into a smooth spindle-

32 PALM TREES

shaped mass, and carefully secured with a fibre of a
“bromelia.” The cotton just fits easily into the tube,
offering a light resisting body for the breath to act
upon.

The fruit of this species is very similar to that of the
Baccaba, and is said to be of even superior flavour.

The Pataw4 is found in the whole of the Amazon
and Rio Negro in the virgin forest, though apparently
nowhere very abundant. Specimens are now growing
in the Palm House at Kew.

The fruit is represented on Pl. X. of the natural size.

(ENOCARPUS MINOR, Wartius.

Baccaba mini, Lingoa Geéral.

Tus is a small species common on the upper Rio
Negro. The stem is not half so thick as in the
(i. baccdba, and the leaves are in proportion. The
fruit is also very small, but is very fleshy and fine-
flavoured, and ripens at a different time of year from
the larger kind. It grows in the dry virgin forest. My
drawing of this tree was unfortunately lost on my
voyage home.

y
“Zz
\CZBANG-G
EZ
Uti

[EERE V
SSV/
WAY \

Uf
if ,
VE
aS

f
EZ fs

Nes

\7

Yj
yy
AI

Ht.60 Ft

BATAWA

‘CENOCARPUS

dy) f
ad te
Maud ek

de

OF THE AMAZON. oo

(HNOCARPUS DISTICHUS, Wartius.

Baccaba, of Para.

Tuts is the species known as the Baccaba at Para,
where the @. baccdba is not found. It is quite distinct
from the allied species by the leaves being distichous;
or arranged nearly in one plane on each side of the
stem, which gives it a very peculiar aspect, unlike any
other Palm.

On my return to Para from the interior, I was
suffermg so much from ague, as to be unable to go in
search of a specimen of this tree to figure as I had
intended.

This, like all other species of the genus, grows in
dry and rather elevated forest land.

34 PALM TREES

Genus [R1ARTHA, Rwiz et Pavon.

Female flowers few, interspersed among the males,
bracteate. Spathe membranous, incomplete. Male
flowers with from twelve to fifty stamens and the
rudiments of a pistil. Female flowers with three
sessile stigmas. ,

These singular and beautiful Palms have lofty,
smooth, cylindrical or ventricose stems, very faintly
ringed. The roots grow more or less above ground.
The leaves are terminal and pinnate, and the leaflets
are somewhat triangular, notched, often twisted or
curled, and have radiating nerves. The sheathing
bases form a column as in LHuterpe. The spadices
grow from beneath the leaves and are simply branched
and drooping. The spathes vary in number and size;
they are membranous, and fall off before the fruit
ripens. The fruit is oval, of moderate size, generally
of a red or yellow colour, and the pulpy part is bitter
and uneatable. The stems of this genus merease in
thickness within certain limits, differing from most
other palms, which, when the stem is once formed,
only increase in height.

Nine species of this genus are known, all natives of
South America. Four of them occur in the Amazon
district, three in Bolivia, one in Venezuela, and one
near Bogota, reaching a height above the sea of 5000
to 8000 feet.

Pl. XIT

ZB

f\

“ eer, pegs, So ) d rs = ig
ARNON ood Gas ipaguee Basezcmezee! PE EE SE RC a CN

ESAS iat NY Co LO NA ESS Fi so ars,

Furd & West Imp

W Bitch hih

TIRIARTEA EXORHIZA. Ht.60 Ft.

OF THE AMAZON. 35

PLATE XII.
IRIARTEA EXORHIZA, Wartius.
Pashitba, Lingoa Geral.

THis curious and beautiful tree is common in the
forests about Para and on the banks of the Amazon.
It reaches fifty or sixty feet in height, with the stem
moderately thick and very smooth, there being scarcely
any rings or scars left by the fallen leaves.

The leaves are large and pinnate, with the leaflets
triangular and very deeply notched, standing out at
different angles with the midrib. The leaves curve over
gracefully, and the character and aspect of the foliage
is very different from that of most other palms. The
column formed by the sheathing leaf-stalks is swollen at
the base and of a deep green colour.

The spadices are three or four in number, growing
rather upwards from the stem below the leaf-column..
They are small and simply branched, and bear small
oval red fruits about the size of a damson, the outer
pulp of which is bitter and only eaten by some birds.

But what most strikes attention in this tree, and
renders it so peculiar, is, that the roots are almost
entirely above ground. They spring out from the stem,
each one at a higher poimt than the last, and extend
diagonally downwards till they approach the ground,
when they often divide into many rootlets, each of
which secures itself in the soil. As fresh ones spring
out from the stem, those below become rotten and die
off; and it is not an uncommon thing to see a lofty
tree supported entirely by three or four roots, so that a
person may walk erect beneath them, or stand with a

36 PALM TREES

tree seventy feet high growing immediately over his
head. ,

In the forests where these trees grow, numbers of
young plants of every age may be seen, all miniature
copies of their parents, except that they seldom possess
more than three legs, which gives them a strange and
almost ludicrous appearance.

The figure on the opposite page (Plate XIII.) repre-
sents accurately the roots of a tree which had been
partly blown down in the forest of the Upper Rio
Negro. My friend Mr. Spruce informs me that it is
a distinct species from that found at Para, though
closely allied to it, and scarcely differmg im the cha-
racter of the roots. .

The wood of these trees is very hard on the outside,
but soft and pithy within. It splits easily and very
straight, and is much used for forming the floors of
canoes, the ceilings of houses, shelves, seats, and various
other purposes. Perfectly straight laths are more
readily made from it than from any other wood, and
they are so hard and durable as to serve for fish-weirs,
corals for turtles, and for harpoons. The air-roots are
covered with tubercular prickles, and are used by some
Indians to grate their mandiocca.

This species grows in swamps or marshy ground in
the virgin forest, not in the tide-flooded lands on the
river banks.

Young plants may be seen in the great Palm House
at Kew.

A fruit is represented on Plate III. fig. 5. of the
natural size.

1 XM.

=

1 & West Imp.

1ora

FE :

W.Ritch lith.

ROOTS OF AN IRIARTEA.

1. XIV

Ford & West Imp.

W. Fitch Jith .

IRIARTEA VENTRICOSA. Ht. 20 Ft:

OF THE AMAZON. 37

PLATE XIV.

IRIARTEA VENTRICOSA, Martius.
Pashitba barriguda, Brazil.

Tus is the most majestic tree of the genus. The
stem reaches eighty or a hundred feet in height, and
besides being rather thicker in proportion than in the
last species, offers a remarkable character in being con-
stantly more or less swollen near the middle or towards
the top. The trunk is generally cylindrical to a height
of forty or fifty feet, where it swells out to double its
former diameter or more for ten or fifteen feet further,
when it again diminishes and becomes cylindrical for
about twenty feet to the summit. It is only when the
trees have reached their full height or nearly so that
the swelling commences. In a forest where they
abound many may be seen of a large size, but quite
cylindrical from top to bottom, while others present
every degree of swelling from a just perceptible thick-
ening to a most extraordinary enlargement. The
column of air-roots in this species is six or eight feet
high, forming a compact conical mass, the separate
roots being more slender than in the Jriartea exorhiza.

The leaves are very large, with the leaflets broadly
triangular and much cut and waved, forming a very
elegant and yet massive head of foliage. The leaf-
column is very thick, much swollen at the base, and of
a deep bluish green colour.

The unopened spathes are lunate in shape and curved

E

38 PALM TREES

downwards, and the spadices are small and. simply
branched.

The wood of this tree is very hard, heavy and black,
and is used by the Indians for making harpoons and
spears with which they hunt the cow-fish. The swollen
part of the stem is sometimes cut down and made into
a canoe, when one is required in a hurry; otherwise it
is not made use of.

The tree grows on the Upper Amazon and Rio Negro,
on hill sides and on the banks of brooks and springs ;

and the Indians say that wherever it abounds salsapa- ~

rilha will be found growing near.
A fruit is represented on the Plate of the natural
size.

—_

ed be AY,

».!
~ Lee —— PETC | - rere os eee et ae Srey ELS POS SERS “
ae Ne = Fite Spiess ae Pircibeewhosembeiwsoanes a bOltbe etn nic pyccamynabuusserise cipal so aaelaiieiinetioaesnilll " RIE MR 2 Sets pease ee Sek oo
Woe x i
: / ge

Ford & West Imp.

i
ns
:
“—
Cae

"i rt St
AS Giiekes Sage er |

tn nt a ie natalie hl
ae:

itch lith

Ar To
WF

TRIARTEA SETIGER Assi 20 be

OF THE AMAZON. 39

PLATE XV.
IRIARTEA SETIGERA, Wartius.
Pashivba miri, Lingoa Geral.

Tuts small species has the stem from fifteen to twenty
feet high, and varying from the thickness of a finger
to that of the wrist, which it never exceeds. The stem
is smooth and cylindrical, but distinctly ringed. The
roots appear only a few inches above the ground. The
leaves are pinnate, the leaflets elongate, triangular and
cut at the ends. The column is short and cylindrical,
and both it and the petioles are covered with short hairs
or down. The spadices have long stalks and grow from
beneath or from among the leaves; they are rather
large and are simply branched. The spathes form
sheaths at the bases of the spadices, and are persistent.
The fruit is oval, of an orange-red colour, and about the
size of the “ hip” or wild rose fruit.

These trees grow on the Upper Amazon and Rio
Negro in the dry virgin forest, where ner occur im
small scattered groves.

This species is of great importance to the Indian of
the Rio Negro. With its stem he constructs his
“ oravatana”’” or blowing tube, which, with the little
arrows before described as made from the spines of the
Patawa, forms a most valuable weapon, enabling him
_ to bring down monkeys, parrots and curassow birds
E 2

4) PALM TREES

from their favourite stations on the summits. of the
loftiest trees of the forest.

When he wishes to make a “ gravaténa” he searches
in the forest till he finds two straight and tall stems of
the “ Pashitba miri” of such proportionate thicknesses
that one could be contained within the other. When
he returns home he takes a long slender rod which he
has prepared on purpose, generally made of the hard
and elastic wood of the “ Pashitba barriguda,” and
with it pushes out the pith from both the stems, and
then with a little bunch of the roots of a tree fern,
cleans and polishes the inside till the bore becomes as
hard and as smooth as polished ebony. He then care-
fully inserts the slenderer tube within the larger,
placing it so that any curve in the one may counteract
that in the other. Should it still be not quite correct,
he binds it carefully to a post in his house till it is per-
fectly straight and dry. He then fits a mouth-piece of
wood to the smaller end of the tube, so that the arrow
may go out freely at the other; and when he wishes to
finish his work neatly, winds spirally round it from end
to end, the shining bark of a creeper. Near the lower
extremity he forms a sight with the large curved cutting
tooth of the Paca (Celogenus paca), which he fixes on
with pitch, and the gravatana is then fit for use.

These tubes are never less than eight and are often
ten or twelve feet long, and on looking through a good
one, not the slightest irregularity can be detected from
one end to the other. The bore is generally not large
enough to admit the tip of the little finger, so that the

OF THE AMAZON. Al

breath more readily fills the whole tube and propels the
arrow with great velocity. The vertical direction is
that in which the surest aim can be taken, and for
which the gravaténa is best adapted. When birds are
feeding at the top of a lofty tree where the result of a
gun-shot would be doubtful, a skilful Indian will take
his station beneath it, and with a puff from his powerful
lungs, will send up his little poisoned arrows with un-
erring aim. The wounded birds sometimes turn giddy
and drop in a few seconds, or fly away to a neighbour-
ing tree and in a minute fall heavily to the ground, or
try to pluck out the arrows with their beaks, which,
however, invariably break in the wound. The hunter
carefully marks the direction in which each one falls,
and when his quiver is emptied of arrows or the tree
of birds, walks round and gathers up the game. Huis
weapon makes no noise, and he therefore often does
more execution than the best European sportsman
armed with his double-barrel Manton.

On Piate XV. fig. 1. is a fruit of the natural size ;
fig. 2. is the gravatana or Indian blowpipe.

42 PALM TREES

Genus Raputa, Commerson. —

Male and female flowers intermixed on the same
spadix. Nocommon spathe, but many small incomplete
sheaths. Male flowers with from six to twelve stamens
and no rudiments of a pistil. Female flowers with
three sessile stigmas and barren stamens.

The stems are short, thick and ringed. The leaves
are very large, regular and pinnate; the leaflets are
lear and have spinulose midribs and edges. The
bases of the petioles are sheathing, and persistent some
way down the stem, and the margins are fibrous. The
spadices grow from among the leaves, and are very
large and much branched ; and the fruit is oblong and
covered with large imbricated scales.

There are three species of the genus known; one is
a native of the west coast of Africa, another of Mada-
gascar, while a third is found on the banks of the
Lower Amazon.

PLXV|

\
UGS
Ws
Wz
Y

W. Fitch ith

Ele el 5) Ft

SERA.

TAIT C

J . b Ly LA

uL

R

OF THE AMAZON. 43

PLATE XVI.
RAPHIA TEDIGHRA, Wartius.
Jupati, Lingoa Geral.

Tuts is one of the most striking of the many noble
Palms which grow on the rich alluvium of the Amazon.
Its comparatively short stem enables us fully to appre-
ciate the enormous size of its leaves, which are at the
same time equally remarkable for their elegant form.
They rise nearly vertically from the stem and bend out
on every side in graceful curves, forming a magnificent
plume seventy feet in height and forty in diameter. I
have cut down and measured leaves forty-eight and
fifty feet long, but could never get at the largest. The
leaflets spread out four feet on each side of the midrib.
They are rather irregularly scattered and not very
closely set; they droop at the tips and have weak
Spinules along the margins.

The stem does not generally exceed six or eight feet
in height and is about a foot in diameter, clothed for
some distance down with the persistent sheathing bases
of the leaf-stalks and the numerous spinous processes
which proceed from them. These spines are something
like those of the “ Patawa,” but not so thick and strong.

The spadices are very large, compoundly branched
and drooping; they grow from among the leaves and
have numerous bract-like sheaths in the place of spathes.

The flowers are of a greenish olive colour and densely

44, PALM TREES

crowded, and the fruit is large, oblong, and reticulated
with large scales.

The petiole or leaf-stalk of this tree is most exten-
sively useful. It is often twelve or fifteen feet long
below the first leaflets, and four or five inches in dia-
meter, perfectly straight and cylindrical. When dried,
it almost equals the quill of a bird for strength and
lightness, owing to its thin hard outer covering and
soft internal pith. But it is too valuable to the Indian
for him to use it entire. He splits off the smooth
glossy rind in perfectly straight strips and makes
baskets and window blinds. The remaining part is of a
consistence between pith and wood, and is split up into
laths about half an inch thick and serves for a variety of
purposes. Window shutters, boxes, bird-cages, par-
titions and even entire houses are constructed of it. In
the little village of Nazaré near Para, many houses of
this kind may be seen in which all the walls are of this
material, supported by a few posts at the angles and
fastened together with pegs.and slender creepers (sipés).

The hand may be easily pushed through one of these
walls, but as the inhabitants do not trouble themselves
with the possession of any article worth stealing, they
sleep as composedly as if stone walls and iron bolts shut
them in with all the security of a more advanced civili-
zation.

The same material is also used for stoppers for
bottles, and we found it answer admirably for liming
our insect boxes, holding the pins securely and being
more uniform in its texture than cork.

OF THE AMAZON. 4D

This is the only American species of the genus, and
it inhabits exclusively the tide-flooded lands of the
Lower Amazon and Para rivers, being quite unknown in
the interior. When descending from the Rio Negro to
Para in the summer of 1852, I observed some of our
Indians who had made the voyage before, pointing out
this tree to their less travelled companions as one of the
curiosities of the lower country not to be found in the
“ Serta.”

It is probable that the leaf, though not entire, is the
largest in the whole vegetable kingdom, some of them
covering a surface of more than 200 square feet. Ina
few years we may be able to see them in the magnificent
Palm House at Kew, where young plants are now grow-
ing. 2

Plate II. fig. 1, a fruit of Raphia tedigera of the
natural size.

4.6 PALM TREES

Genus Mauritia, Linneus.

Male flowers on one tree, female or hermaphrodite
flowers or. another. The spathes are imperfect, bract-
like, tubular sheaths. The male flowers have six
stamens. The female flowers have a three-lobed stigma
and six imperfect stamens.

The stems are either tall, columnar and smooth, or
more slender and armed with strong conical spines.
The leaves are all fan-shaped or radiating from a centre.
The spadix is very large and pimnately branched, and
grows from among the leaves. The fruits are of mo-
derate size, oval or globular, and covered with rather
small imbricated scales pointing downwards.

Four species are described by Martius, three of which
occur in the Amazon district, and four more were met
with by me on the Rio Negro, so that the genus seems
confined to the hottest parts of the American Continent —
from the level of the sea to an altitude of about 3000
feet. .

bitin
et rae
Wet / eo

al

|

j

(

f I
[hs

SERIE, es Sake ey «
is pie a A
pies chies ahaehcns Set Uae hesainy
3 eitooe tes ( . soe

i

yu
Cp i
Y , a
‘ll Vis :
oy
ff
ae
Pp
ATT LY & AI ARG =
SS Wh hd be G7 Aa” aes Arte
. WIE AY Lot Lo ee
\\\\\ Z
a\\\
SR
=
—S Sle onic
= Z —
a 7. be.
a a oxy
ZA hid SS
iad

Ford & West Enp

W Fitch lich

MAURITIA FLEXUOSA.Ht.100 Ft.

OF THE AMAZON. 47

PLATE XVII.
MAURITIA FLEXUOSA, Linneus.

Murti, Lingoa Geral.
Murichi, in Venezuela.
Ita? Mouth of the Orinoco.

THis is one of the most noble and majestic of the
American Palms. It grows to a height of eighty or
a hundred feet. The stem is straight and smooth,
about five feet in circumference, often perfectly cylin-
drical, but sometimes swollen near the middle or
towards the top, so that the bottom is the thinnest part.

The leaves spread out in every direction from the top
of the stem. They are very large and fan-shaped, the
leaflets spreading out mgidly on all sides and only
drooping at the tips and at the midrib or elongation of
the petiole. The leaves stand on long stalks which are
very straight and thick, and much swollen at the base
which clasps the stem. A full-grown fallen leaf of this
tree is a grand sight. The expanded sheathing base is
a foot in diameter; the petiole is a solid beam ten or
twelve feet long, and the leaf itself is nine or ten in
diameter, An entire leaf is a load for a man.

The spadices grow out from among the leaves; they
are very large, pimnately branched and horizontal or
drooping. The fruit is spherical, the size of a small

AS PALM TREES

apple and covered with rather small, smooth, brown,
reticulated scales, beneath which is a thin coating of
pulp. A spadix loaded with fruit is of immense weight,
often more than two men could carry between them.
The leaves, fruit and stem of this tree are all useful
to the natives of the interior. The leaf-stalks are
applied to the same purposes as those of the species last
described, the Jupati. The epidermis of the leaves
furnishes the material of which the string for hammocks,
and cordage for a variety of purposes is made. The
unopened leaves form a thick-pointed column rising
from the very centre of the crown of foliage. This is
cut down, and by a little shaking the tender leaflets
fall apart. Hach one is then skilfully stripped of its
outer covering, a thin riband-like pellicle of a pale
yellow colour which shrivels up almost into a thread.
These are then tied in bundles and dried, and are after-
wards twisted by rolling on the breast or thigh into
string, or with the fingers into thicker cords. The
article most commonly made from it is the “réde,” or
netted hammock, which is the almost universal bed of
the native tribes of the Amazon. These are formed by
doubling the string over two rods or poles about six or
seven feet apart, till there are forty or fifty parallel
threads, which are then secured at intervals of about a
foot by cross strings twisted and tied on to every longi-
tudinal one. A strong cord is then passed through the
loop formed by all the strings brought together at each
end, by which the hammock is hung up a few feet from
the ground, and in this open net the naked Indian

OF THE AMAZON. 49

sleeps beside his fire as comfortably as we do in our
beds of down.

Other tribes twist the strings together in a com-
plicated manner so that the hammock is more elastic,
and the Brazilians have introduced a variety of improve-
ments by using a kind of knitting needles producing a
closer web, or by a large wooden frame with rollers, on
which they weave in a rude manner with a woof and
weft as in a regular loom. They also dye the string of
* many brilliant colours which they work in symmetrical
patterns, making the rédes or “‘ maqueiras”’ as they are
there called, among the gayest articles of furniture to be
seen in a Brazilian house on the Amazon.

From the fruits a favourite Indian beverage is pro-
duced. They are soaked in water till they begin to
ferment, and the scales and pulpy matter soften and can
be easily rubbed off in water. When strained through
a sieve itis ready for use, and has a slight acid taste
aud a peculiar flavour of the fruit at first rather
disagreeable to European palates.

In the tidal districts about Para, the massive trunks
of these trees are often used to form a raised pathway
across the expanse of soft mud generally left at low
water between “terra firma” and the water’s edge.
A smooth and slippery cylinder is certainly not the best
thing that could be devised for this purpose, but as it is
the most easily procured and the least expensive it is
proportionately common, and on paying a visit to many
a Brazilian country house, should you arrive at low
water, you will have no other means of getting ashore.

F

50 PALM TREES

The Miriti is a social palm, covering large tracts of
tide-flooded lands on the Lower Amazon. In these
places there is no underwood to break the view among
interminable ranges of huge columnar stems rising un-
disturbed by branch or leaf to the height of eighty or a
hundred feet,—a vast natural temple which does not
yield in grandeur and sublimity to those of Palmyra or
Athens.

Of the age of these noble trees we have no know-
ledge, but it is remarkable how uniform they appear m
size, there often being not a single young tree over
a considerable extent of ground, particularly in places
now flooded daily by the tide. One would therefore
imagine that the present trees sprung up when the
ground was more elevated than at present, and that it
has since gradually sunk (or the waters risen) till the
conditions have become unfavourable for the growth of
young plants, though not hurtful to those which had
already attained a certain age. Whether such is the
true explanation of the phenomenon can only be
decided by continued observation on the spot. -

Besides this species which is mentioned by Martius
as occurring at Para, my friend Mr. Spruce ascer-
tained that another closely allied palm, the Mauritia
vinifera, also occurs there. On the Upper Amazon and
Rio Negro a palm is found supposed to be the M&M.
flexuosa, but it is not so lofty a tree, which may per-
haps be accounted for by its growing on annually in-
stead of diurnally flooded lands. It is believed to be
the same species which Humboldt observed on the

OF THE AMAZON. 51

Serra Duida. The Ita palm growing on the delta of
the Orinoco is also thought to be the same species.
On the river Uaupes, a branch of the Upper Rio Negro,
I observed an allied species called by the natives “ Ca-
rana assu.”. The stem was smooth and much more
slender and waving, and the leaves much smaller.

Plants of the Mauritia flexuosa are growing in the
Palm House at Kew.

On Plate XVII. a single leaf is represented, showing
the flabellate form produced by abbreviation of the
midrib.

Plate II. fig. 2. is a fruit of the natural size.

¥2

ra

ree) ae i
Sh Tee, ie
“S

PLXVII

Ford & West Imp

W-Fitch lith

oth

MAURITIA CARANA. Ht.40

53

PLATE XVIII.
MAURITIA CARANA, 0. Sp.
Carana, Lingoa Geral.

Tuts is a large smooth-stemmed species allied to
M. flexuosa, but quite distinct and hitherto undescribed.
The stem is about a foot in diameter and from twenty
to forty feet high, smooth and obscurely rmged. The
leaves are very similar to those of the Miriti, but the
leaflets are not so deeply divided, being united together
at the base for one-third of their entire length, and
much more drooping at the tips. The petioles are
very large, straight and cylindrical; their dilated
bases are persistent for a considerable distance down
the stem, and their margins give out a quantity of
fibres which clothe it as in the Leopoldinia piassaba,
though rather less densely.

The spadices grow from among the leaves and are
somewhat more erect and much smaller than im the
Miriti, and the fruits are less abundant, smaller and
slightly ovate.

The leaf-stalks of this species are used for the same
purposes as those of the Miriti and Jupati already de-
scribed, as those palms are generally absent where
this is abundant. The part most generally used, how-
ever, is the leaf, which for thatching is preferred to
that of any other species, on account of its having so
large a portion of the base entire and being of a very

54: PALM TREES

durable texture. A roof well-thatched with Carana
will last eight or ten years without renewing, and the
leaves are so constantly cut for this purpose that it is
hardly possible to find an entire and handsome tree.
Though so closely resembling the Miriti, the epidermis
is never used for cordage, and on my asking an Indian
the reason, he quite laughed at the idea, saying that it
was quite impossible because the Caran4 “ did not pro-
duce any thread.”

This tree grows in the district of the Rio Negro and
Upper Orinoco, but is not found on the Amazon. It
prefers the dry Catinga forests, or the sandy margins of
streams out of reach of the highest floods. At Javita
I observed it growing within a few yards of the Miriti,
but still preserving all its distinctive characters.

It is called by the natives Carana, the smaller prickly
stemmed species being known by the name of Caranai.

Pl XIX

Ee

\\ |
x q \\ \ i] {fs
Wh
= A,
\\ “a
Y, y
\\ :
> rs = = = z
— SS 3
A\nr — Be =
= - = << S
> othe wy? x Pe,
: .
4 ;
.
= = > _ ~
FF, = = =
C7, j GY. - oe
J fp a!) b = :
’ ty a \}
y fy Zi pj ag
Hib \ ¥ \
7 \ :
\ \ S
|
v
te
a
s 8
| \ “VE
/ el
N 5 = SS Ny j 4
ry v4
> . \ \ */ Y He
SS \ SS Ye
: \ pe
e = F Ey
\\ rs
fe .

. &

\ ft x
iw 4 -
ee

N BF ; f
SAT Wy . Ne
nt Festal oe YL , Ny
oar> a) . / rf /, ~~ :

es a
ad .
2

"
4%

Witch lith Ford & West. Imp.

eaabapeniana’

motto t=
@

ey ere

MAURITIA ACULEATA. Ht. 45 Ft.

or
Or

OF THE AMAZON.

PLATE XIX.
MAURITIA ACULEATA, Humboldt.

Caranai, Lingoa Geral (Rio Negro).

Carané? (Parad). °

Tuts species has a tall, erect and slender stem reaching
about forty or fifty feet in height and armed with
numerous, long, conical, woody spines arranged in
rings. The leaves are rather small with the leaflets
rigid and very slightly drooping at the tips, and united
at the base for about one-eighth of their length. The
petioles are long and slender and are deciduous, the
entire leaf falling away from the stem. The midrib
and edges of the leaflets are armed with weak spinules.
The spadices are small and grow somewhat erect so as
to be partly concealed among the leaves, and the fruit
is oval and rather small.

This species grows on the Upper Rio Negro and
Atabapo, in marshes, with a rocky subsoil, and in the
moist parts of the Catinga forest. The Carandé, com-
mon in the swamps (not in the tide-flooded lands) about
Para, is very closely allied or may be the same species.

vs ‘ eee ex > ed
an eels
“? om, én
> ~ ’
' ‘a
hoy ‘
eS
‘
:
\
-
-
2
5 a
°
* y

J SENN Pigs ., ir

hs ;
-% PSs Set
. , ‘ ‘
, F
CRs
at
| | re.
. Red
; f | j
z tt 2 |
ae : ‘¢
Tint zt
> \. us i
SEs mon he ; |
2 bs
70; 2 :

ifs fh Dass oe. . é ade: Hox i
Sols a Saw ‘quads

f eo. pit mat fe

ie

rs,

ur

| pe

ft
=

Ke

ee

AP oe N
ING GN
ti SUA NS:

caypmune da sD PIP ITIANSPSAN he Loe fg as
See EM ARRE ogy mises riimatedebicg :
2b napranronns dad yt
. , % ee Tt aw

lacrhicaiimmianane net
6 pa ntsrentiann tie it reese

_ Ford & West Imp.

W Fitch Eth,

* MAURITIA GRACILIS. Ht.30 Ft.

Ot
“I

PLATE XX.

MAURITIA GRACILIS, 0. sp.
Caranai, Lingoa Geral.

Tuts very elegant species is rather smaller than the
last. The. stem is from twenty to thirty feet high,
slender, waving, and ringed with conical spines rather
smaller than in ©. aculeata.

‘The leaves are from five to eight im number with
much-drooping leaflets. The petioles are slender, short,
and greatly dilated at the base. The spadices are three
or four in number, growing from among the leaves, of
very large size in proportion to the tree, much-branched
and drooping. They bear great quantities of fruit,
which is of an oval shape and nearly as large as that of
the Mauritia carana.

This beautiful little palm is first met with about
Barcellos on the Rio Negro, more than 300 miles up
the river, and is thence common as far as the black-
water tributaries of the Orinoco. It always grows
close to the water’s edge in clumps of thirty or forty
individuals, and its drooping leaves of a pale hoary
green colour, never so much crowded as to lose their
distinct outline, with the bending clusters of rich brown
fruit, render it one of the greatest ornaments of its
native river. The fruit is eaten, after being softened by
soaking some time in water.

It seems closely allied to M. armata of Martius,

58 PALM TREES

which is found much farther south, on the banks of
the S. Francisco River, but is probably quite a distinct

species.

a

ee ht ne
at ee oe
a AS

~
5 Ala
Ol . aie”

& > 7 "
lg a a t, : Sag?

Pl. XXT

lp
.4
\
\
y
uN
.
ss
bee
ho
a
!
Ae
es
2
p
fa
#
s
fe
eT

RT sa on aoe

BR FA a +

NA y A
"eB cancthas po Pana eA tt at
, Sere

Ford & West Imp

W Ficeb lith ;
MAURITIA PUMILA.‘Ht.10 Et.

OF THE AMAZON, 59

PLATE XXII.
MAURITIA PUMILA, N. sp.
Caranai, Lingoa Geral.

Tuis curious little palm is only eight or ten feet high,
and has the stem slender, riged, and armed with strong
conical spines. The leaves are rather small and few in
number, and the leaflets are much shorter, broader and
more rigid than in any other palm of this genus. The
petioles are long and rather thick, much sheathing at
the bases which are persistent, clothmg the stem some
distance down after the leaves have dropped away from
them, a character not found in any other prickly-
stemmed species. The spadix is very long, branched
and drooping. The fruit was not seen.

I only met with this palm on the Upper Rio Negro
in two localities on the sandy margins of rivers and
lakes just above the limits of the winter floods.

60 PALM TREES

Genus LEPIDocARYUM, JJartius.

Male flowers on one tree, female or hermaphrodite
flowers on another. Spathes, imperfect, bract-like,
tubular sheaths. The male flowers have six stamens.
The female flowers have three sessile stigmas and six
imperfect stamens.

The stems are very slender, unarmed with spines or
tubercles and deeply rmged. The leaves are fan-shaped,
and have slender petioles and long swollen sheaths.
The spadices are elongate and pinnately branched,
erowing from among the leaves. The fruits are oblong
and covered with imbricated scales. |

These delicate and very rare little Palms acaveely
differ botanically from the last genus. Two species
only are known, inhabiting the dense virgin forests of
the Upper Amazon and Rio Negro, where they appear
to be very locally distributed.

Pl ae

ae cletnenimiacdannegpen ben ee eedecin akan esbeceat alle

Ford & West Imp

W Fitch hth

LEPIDOCARYUM TENUEB: Gis ii:

OF THE AMAZON. 6]

PLATE XXII.
LEPIDOCARYUM TENUE, Wartius.
Caranai do Mato, of the Rio Negro.

Tus, the smallest of the fan-leaved Palms, has a
smooth, rmged, waving stem as thick as one’s finger
and six or eight feet high. Its dark green glossy leaves,
with narrow drooping leaflets, grow on long and slender
stalks which have their sheathing bases much swollen
and lengthened.

The spadices are small and slender, and the fruits,
which are not abundant, are scaled in the same manner
as those of the Mauritias, and are about the size of a
large hazel-nut.

This rare and elegant species grows in the gloomiest
depths of the virgin forest of the Upper Rio Negro,
generally at some distance inland from the rivers, and
shaded by the loftiest forest trees.

Plate II. fig. 4. represents a fruit of this species of
the natural size.

62 PALM TREES

Genus Gronoma, Willdenow.

Male and female flowers on distinct trees, or rarely
on distinct spadices of the same tree. Spathe small,
incomplete. Male flowers with six stamens and a
rudimentary pistil. Female flowers with three stigmas
and a six-toothed ring of abortive stamens.

These are small palms with slender, smooth, ringed,
reed-like stems. The leaves are large, regularly or
irregularly pinnate, with the leaflets broad, and the
bases of the petioles sheathing. The spadices are
slender and more or less branched, and the spathes are
double but small and membranous. The fruits are
small, round or ovate, and are not eatable. |

There are thirty-three species of this genus known,
all of small size, and inhabiting various parts of South
America and Mexico, from the level of the sea to 2000
feet above it. Many species may be seen flourishing in
the Palm House at Kew.

Pl XXII

os
“4k

¢

Ford & West Imp.

W Fitch lith

GEONOMA. MULTIPLOR A. Bide Pe

OF THE AMAZON, 63

PLATE XXITI.

GEONOMA MULTIFLORA, Martius.
Ubimrana, Lingoa Geral.

Tuis handsome species is from eight to fifteen feet
high, and has the stem regularly ringed or jointed,
giving it a reed-like appearance. The leaves are very
large, regularly pinnate and gracefully drooping on
every side. The leaflets are very regularly placed on
the midrib, and the terminal pair are much larger and
broader. The petioles are slender and smooth, and
the sheathing bases have an expanded fibrous mar-
gin.

The spadices grow from among the lower leaves, and
are short, erect and simply branched. The spathes
are very small and concealed among the petioles. The
fruit is small, ovate, and when ripe of a red colour.

This appears to be the Geonoma multiflora of Mar-
tius, but the species are so closely allied that without a
comparison of specimens it is very difficult absolutely
to identify them.

I have found it only in the Catinga forests of the
Upper Rio Negro, where it occurs very sparingly.

A fruit is represented on the Plate of the natural

size.

e2

s/s “a
,
r
’
vy
s
Pee
‘
a -_ ’
. ; &
Lr Oe
AG aie oe
e °
“2
‘i
4
* :
—
- * Z a are
’ -
: Ree? ay
a = hide rom

is J - ae

pe nN Sta
A ee Hegiihn Aus Soul

» 7 Pw eh - * a

ey.

ee tee Lehi estan) :

Pl XXIV.

W Fitch lth. Ford & West Imp.

GEONOMA PANICULIGERA. Ht. Ft.

Oo
Dy |

PLATE XXIV.

GEONOMA PANICULIGERA, Martius.
Ubim de Cotiwiya, Lingoa Geral.

TuIs is a species from six to nine feet high and very
similar in appearance to the last. The leaves, however,
have only three or four pairs of leaflets of irregular
width, the terminal pair being always very large and
broad, and the others not being always placed opposite
each other on the midrib.

The spadix is large, much branched and somewhat
drooping, and has a small, soft and inconspicuous basal
spathe. The fruit is small and round.

This species grows in the same localities and in the
same soil as the last, but is much more abundant. It
appears to agree well with the G. paniculigera of Mar-
tius.

There is a very closely allied species abundant in
certain parts of the flooded lands or “gapd” of the
Rio Negro, which is much used for thatching. The
leaves being cut, the leaf-stalks are doubled and hitched
on side by side to a strip of “ pashitiba,” and secured
with “sipés” (which are the air-roots of drums and
other plants). They are said to make one of the most
durable kinds of roof, and are much used for covering
the semicircular “toldas” of canoes. They are also
considered the best material for lining baskets of salt,

66 PALM TREES

and persons often go several days’ journey to procure
them for both these purposes.
I had no opportunity of closely examining the spe-

cies which produces these leaves, and which is called

“ Ubim,” in contradistinction to the other allied species
which are termed “ Ubimrana” (false ubim), “ Ubim
de cotiwiya” (Agouti’s ubim) and other such names,
and all of which, though sometimes used as substitutes,
are said to be much less durable.

ee
ae.

ms,
“at

Pl XXV.

W Eitch hth : Ford & West Imp

GEONOMA RECTIFOLIA. Ht.8 ee
4° 4

OF THE AMAZON. 67

PLATE XXYV.

GEONOMA RECTIFOLIA, 0. sp.
Ubimrana, Lingoa Geral.

Tuis little species is nearly allied to the last. It
reaches six or eight feet in height and has the stem
distinctly joited and the leaves persistent some way
down it. The petioles grow very upright, and there
are three or four pair of long, narrow and rather rigid
leaflets, the terminal being the largest.

The spadices are numerous from the axils of the
lower leaves, and are small and simply branched; and
the fruit is very small, round and black.

This palm may be distinguished from G. paniculigera,
to which it is most closely allied, by its very long
narrow leaflets and much more erect habit ; and by its
smaller and less-branched spadices growing lower down
on the stem, often below the leaves.

I found it in a few localities only on the Upper Rio
Negro, growing in the sandy Catinga forest near the
margin of the river.

A fruit is represented on the Plate of the natural

size.

68 PALM TREES

Genus MaAnicaria, Gertner. -

Male and female flowers in the same spadix. Spathe
fusiform, fibrous, complete, breaking open irregularly.
Male flowers with twenty-four to thirty stamens. Fe-
male flowers (situated below the male) with three sessile
stigmas and twelve rudimentary stamens.

Stem short, thick and irregularly ringed. Leaves
very large, entire and rigid, the sheathing bases per-
sistent. | Spadices simply branched, growing from
among the leaves, nearly erect. Fruit large, hard,
somewhat triangular or three-lobed and three-seeded,
externally very rugose.

Only one species of this genus is known, which in-
habits the Lower Amazon at the level of the sea.

Ford & West Imp.

W. Fitch ith

~
Pie

MANICARIA SACCIFERA. Ht.40 Fe.

.

OF THE AMAZON. 69

PLATE XXVI.

MANICARIA SACCIFERA, Gertner.
Bussu, Lingoa Geral.

THis unique and handsome palm has the stem from ten
to fifteen feet high, curved or crooked and deeply
ringed. The leaves are very large, entire, rigid and
furrowed, and have a serrated margin ; they are often
thirty feet long and four or five wide, and split irre-
gularly with age. The petioles are slender with a
broadly expanded fibrous-edged sheath at the base.
These sheaths are persistent and often cover the stem
down to the ground.

The spadices are numerous, growing from among the
leaves, and are simply branched and drooping. The
fruit is of an olive colour, somewhat three-lobed and
with a rugose or papillate exterior covermg. The
spathe is fusiform and entire, of a fibrous cloth-like
texture and of a brown colour. As the spadix expands
it breaks open irregularly, but in some cases a dead
unopened flower bunch is found enclosed in an entire
half-rotten spathe, as if the vital powers of the plant

70 PALM TREES

had not been sufficient to tear asunder the tough
fibrous sheath.

The ‘“bussti” produces the largest entire leaves of
any known palm, and for this reason, as well as on
account of their firm and rigid texture, they form the
very best and most durable thatch. The leaves are
split down the midrib and the halves laid obliquely on
the rafters, so that the furrows formed by the veins lie
in a nearly vertical direction and serve as so many
little gutters to carry off the water more rapidly. A
well-made thatch of “bussti” will last ten or twelve
years, and an Indian will often take a week’s voyage
in order to get a canoe-load of the leaves to cover his
house.

The spathe too is much valued by the Indian, fur-
nishing him with an excellent and durable cloth.
Taken off entire it forms bags in which he keeps the
red paint for his toilet or the silk cotton for his arrows,
or he even stretches out the larger ones to make him-
self a cap,—cunningly woven by nature without seam
or joming. When cut open longitudinally and pressed
flat, it is used to preserve his delicate feather orna-
ments and gala dresses, which are kept in a chest of
plaited palm leaves peer layers of the smooth
“bussu ” cloth.

This species inhabits the tidal swamps of the Lower
Amazon. A palm called “bussu” is also found on
the Rio Negro and Upper Amazon, but it is of a
smaller size and is probably a distinct species.

OF THE AMAZON. |

A spathe is represented on the Plate and a dead stem
from which the leaves have entirely fallen.

Plate II. fig. 3, a fruit of Manicaria saccifera of the
natural size.

72 PALM TREES

Genus Drsmoncus, Martius.

Male flowers on the upper parts of the branches of
the spadix, females on the lower. Spathe fusiform,
woody, at length deciduous. Male flowers with six
stamens and linear acute anthers. Female flowers with
a short style and three stigmas and six small scaly
rudiments of stamens.

Stems slender, flexible, climbing over shrubs or trees.
Leaves alternate, pmnate, much sheathing, with long
hooked spines in the place of the three or four terminal
pair of leaflets. The spadices are axillary and simply
branched, the spathes double, fusiform or ventricose,
and the fruits are small, round, and generally red. The
stems and leaves are more or less prickly.

Fourteen species of these curious Palms are found
in various parts of South America, principally in the
low lands, as they are not known at a greater height
than 2000 feet above the level of the sea. They differ
remarkably from all other American palms in their long —
climbing stems, in which they resemble the Calami or
Canes so abundant in the East Indies.

|
|
|
|
|
|

Pl XXVIT.

A fi
\
iz
W.Fitch lith

DESMONCUS

MACROACAN THUS. Ht.50 Ft.

7
: -
tm’
Ford & West Imp.

OF THE AMAZON. 73

PLATE XXVIII.
DESMONCUS MACROACANTHUS, Wartius.
Jacitara, Lingoa Geral.

THE stem of this palm is very slender, weak and
flexible, often sixty or seventy feet long, and climbing
over bushes and trees or trailing along the ground. It
is armed with scattered tubercular prickles. The leaves
grow alternately along the stem; they are pinnate, »
with from three to five pairs of leaflets, beyond which
the midrib is produced and armed with several pairs of
strong spines directed backwards, and with numerous
smaller prickles. The leaflets are ovate, with the edges
waved or curled. The bases of the petioles are expanded
into long membranous sheaths.

The spadices grow on long stalks from the axils of
the leaves and are simply branched. The spathes are
ventricose, erect, persistent and prickly, and the fruit is
globular, of a red colour, and not eatable.

The rind or bark of this species is much used for
making the “tipitis” or elastic plaited cylmders used
for squeezing the juice out of the grated Mandiocca-root
in the manufacture of farinha. These cylinders are some-
- times made of the rind of certain water plants and of
the petioles of several palms, but those constructed of
“Jacitéra”’? are said to outlast two or three of the
others, and though they are much more difficult to

H

74: PALM TREES

make, are most generally used among the Indian tribes.
When the cylinders are used they are suspended from
a strong pole, having been first filled with the grated
pulp. A long lever is passed through the loop at the
lower end of the “tipiti,’ by means of which it is
stretched, the power being applied by a woman sitting
on the further extremity of the pole. The cylinder
thus becomes powerfully contracted, and the poisonous
juice runs out at every part of the surface and is caught
in a pan below in order to be carefully thrown away,
for it would cause speedy death to any domestic animal
which should drink it.

This species grows in the Catinga forests of the
Upper Rio Negro and on the margins of small streams,
climbing over trees and hanging in festoons between
them, throwing out its armed leaves on every side to
catch the unwary traveller. How often will they seize
the insect-net of the ardent Entomologist just as he is
making a dash at some rare butterfly, or fasten in his
jacket or shirt-sleeve, or pull the cap from his head !
Woe then to the impatient wanderer! a pull or a tug
will inevitably cause a portion of the fractured garment
to stay behind, for the “jacitéra”’ never looses its hold,
and it is only by deliberately extracting its fangs that
the intruder can expect to depart unhurt.

In some places small igaripés or forest streams are
almost filled up with various climbing grasses and
creepers, among which the “jacitara” holds a promi-
nent place, and it is up these streams that the Indians
often delight to fix their abode. In such cases they

OF THE AMAZON. 75

never cut down a branch, but pass and repass daily in
their little canoes which wind like snakes among the
tangled mass of thorny vegetation. They are thus
almost safe against the incursions of the white traders,
who often attack them in their most distant retreats,
carry fire and sword into their peaceful houses and take
captive their wives and children. But few white men
can penetrate for miles along a little winding stream
such as is here described, where not a broken twig or
cut branch is found to. show that a human being has
ever passed before. Thus does the thorny “ jacitéra ”
help to secure the independence of the wild Indian in
the depths of the forests which he loves.

This species most nearly agrees with the D. macro-
acanthus of Martius. Fine specimens of an allied species
may be seen growing in the Palm House at Kew.

A fruit is represented on the Plate of the natural size.

4
4
©

76 PALM TREES

Genus BactrRis, Jacquin.

Male and female flowers intermingled in the same
spadix, the females bemmg more abundant in the lower
parts and the males in the upper. Spathe double, ex-
terior short and membranous, interior complete, woody.
Male flowers with six, nine or twelve stamens. Female |
flowers with three sessile stigmas, and the stamens
represented by a rudimentary ring.

The stems in this genus are very slender, rimged,
nearly smooth or with a few scattered spines. The
leaves are more or less terminal, generally few in num-
ber, pinnate or entire, with the bases of the petioles
much sheathmg and very spmy. ‘The spathe is also
clothed with spmes. The spadices are simple or simply
branched and grow from the axils of the leaves. The
fruit is small and round, and the outer pulp is often
subacid and eatable.

This very extensive genus of small prickly Palms
contains forty-six species, all natives of South America.
Two species described by Martius are here figured,
together with six others apparently new, but as it may
be impossible to identify those not seen in fruit, some
of them have been left unnamed.

The species here figured are all from the Rio Negro,
where I began studying them, and are sufficient to give
an idea of their general characteristics and aspect.

Witch lith Ford & West. Tp.

BACTRIS PECTINATA. Ht.8 Ft.

“I

“I

OF THE AMAZON.

PLATE XXVIII.

BACTRIS PECTINATA, Martius.
fu, Lingoa Geral.

Tue stem of this species is from six to ten feet high,
very slender, strongly ringed or jointed and smooth,
but all other parts of the plant, the petioles, sheaths,
spathes, &c., are prickly. The leaves are regularly
pinnate, with the leaflets long, narrow, pointed and
hairy beneath. The long sheathing bases of the
petioles are persistent, covering the stem often half way
down to the ground.

The spadices grow from among the persistent ieaf-
sheaths ; they are very small, simple or two- or three-
branched, and have a small persistent fibrous spathe.
The fruit is very small and globular and of a red colour,
and is not eatable.

This very hairy and prickly little palm grows in the
sandy Catinga forest of the Upper Rio Negro and in
the most exposed localities. It seems to agree well
with the B. pectinata of Martius.

A fruit is shown on the Plate of the natural size.

4 % é
DT EL LE FR RE I OT IS OE ES a =
¥ Re ge eel ies al ew . \

oo 4
ia ‘

Yord & West Im

PLATE XXIX.

BACTRIS

, 1. sp.
Marayarana, Lingoa Geral.

Tue stem of this species is about an inch in diameter
and ten or twelve feet high, thickly set with flat black
spines disposed mm rings. The leaves are rather large
and irregularly pinnate, the leaflets being in little
‘groups of two or four, standing out at various angles
from the midrib, the groups themselves being set alter-
nately along it. The leaflets are elongate and have the
midrib produced in a bristly pomt, and the terminal
pair are not larger than the rest. The petioles are
armed with flat whitish spines, which on the long
sheathing bases become black.

I met with this palm only once, growing in the dry
virgin forest on the banks of the Rio Negro. Though
it had neither flowers nor fruit at the time, yet its habit
is so peculiar as to leave little doubt of its being a new
species. It seems most nearly allied to the Bactris
macroacantha of Martius.

#8

—

as

‘-
>

PL.XXX.

ay

Ket =

Ford & West mp

“WEitch lith

BACTRIS ELATIOR. Ht. 20 Ft.

8]

PLATE XXX.
BACTRIS ELATIOR, N. sp.
Marayarana, Lingoa Geral.

Tuis is a tall and elegant species. The stem is from
fifteen to twenty feet high and about one inch in dia-
meter, with a few scattered groups of small spines.
The leaves are regularly pinnate, with broad leaflets
narrowed at the base and ending in a lengthened point,
the terminal pair being rather broader. The petioles
and their sheathing bases are covered with broad, flat,
whitish spines.

The spadices grow from among the lower leaves on
long stalks and are simply branched and drooping.
The spathes are elongate fusiform and spiny, and are
persistent. The fruit is small and globular.

This very graceful palm grows in the moist part of
the virgin forest of the Upper Rio Negro, where I
found it on the banks of small forest streams ; and it
seems quite distinct from any of the very numerous
species described by Martius.

a oar
eee: ae

ae we eee cee eee ee oe

«

; -_ »
Ps tae?

- ae ¥
TDS et) Ce
7 “0 7 _

on : 7

Wii
a, We

Ford & West Im.

W Fitch lith.

Hi gO Be

BAG UE he gest

PLATE XXXI1.

BAcCTRIS

toa
Native name unknown.

Tue stem of this curious palm is from twenty to twenty-
five feet high and very slender. It is marked with
shghtly sunk rmgs and has a few scattered spines.
The leaves are rather small, few in number and terminal.
The leaflets are rigid, narrowed at the base, widest near
the end and suddenly tapering to a pomt. They are
arranged in groups of three or four at short intervals

along the midrib, from which they stand out at different
angles. The petioles and their sheathing bases are
thickly set with slender, flattish, black spines generally
pointing downwards.

This species was only found once, growing in the
‘“‘gapd” or flooded lands of the Upper Rio Negro, and
at the time had neither flowers nor fruit. The form
and arrangement of the leaflets are so peculiar that it
cannot be confounded with any species yet described.

A leaflet is represented of a larger size to show the
peculiar form.

Peek: oe | : < thi
< Ma = as BOLERO ety
t ee 5 a! rot

4

pts ae i ;
tee
ie IHS

Rok ae

Pl. XXXTT

ford & West Imp.

MACROCARPA. Ht.lO Ft

BACTRIS

PLATE XXXII.
BACTRIS MACROCARPA, 0. sp.

lu, Lingoa Geral.

Tuts species has the stem about an inch in diameter
and ten or twelve feet high, distinctly jomted, smooth
and reed-like, but with a few spines in small groups at
the joints. The leaves are terminal, of moderate size
and rather interruptedly pinnate. The leaflets often
grow in pairs and are broad, narrowed at the base and
have the midrib produced at the point, the terminal
pair being the largest. The petioles and sheaths are
thickly set with whitish flat prickles.

The spadices are small, five- or six- branched, and
rather long-stalked. The spathe is small, smooth and
persistent. The fruit is oval, with a produced apex,
large in proportion to the tree, of a reddish or yellowish
olive colour, and not eatable, the outer covering being
dry and woolly.

The smooth reed-like stem of this species resembles
those of the Geonomas, and it is also remarkable for
the large size of its fruit. It grows on the dry sandy

I

soil of the Catinga forests of the Upper Rio Ne

A fruit is represented on the Plate of the natural
size, and a leaflet reduced one-fourth to show oe pentar

form.

; ye
ie Se e
PRE NS
ae
atid
ae
=
y
OREN

It seems most nearly allied to B. mitis of Martius. 2k ie a Z

PIXXX

Fi un Vurd & West Ti.

BAG TRIS: TENULS. He terre.

OF THE AMAZON. 87

PLATE XXXIITI.

BACTRIS TENUIS, N. sp.
lu, Lingoa Geral.

In this species the stem is not thicker than a goose
quill, distinctly jointed and smooth. The leaves are
terminal, four or five in number, and rather irregularly
pinnate. The leaflets are elongate and acute, with
produced points, four or five in number, on each side
of the midrib, the terminal pair being the broadest.
The petioles and their sheathing bases are covered with
small, flat, black spines.

The spadices grow from below the leaves and are
very small and unbranched. The spathes are fusiform,
erect, persistent and smooth. The fruit is small,
globose, and of a red colour.

This is one of the smallest of Palms, and in every >
part of its structure offers a striking contrast to the
great Mauritia and other giants of the family. While
they possess huge columnar stems a hundred feet in
height and two feet in diameter, this has but a slender
stalk the thickness of a quill; and while their fruit
bunches are the largest in the vegetable kingdom, the
whole spadix of this species is smaller than a bunch of
currants.

It is allied to B. cuspidata and to B. fissifrons of
. Martius, but seems sufficiently distinct from either of
12

w

88 PALM TREES

them. It grows exposed to the sun in the sandy
Catinga forests of the Upper Rio Negro.

An entire spadix with fruit is represented on the
Plate, of the natural size.

Pl. XXXIV.

Witch lith Ford. & West Imp.

BACTRIS: SIMPLICIFRONS. (Et, burs.

OF THE AMAZON. 89

PLATE XXXIV.
BACTRIS SIMPLICIFRONS, Martius.
Ii, Lingoa Geral.

Tue stem of this little palm resembles in size and ap-
pearance that of B. tenuis. The leaves are five or
six in number, terminal, and consist of a single broad
bifid leaflet, or more properly a pair of opposite terminal
leaflets. The petioles and their sheathing bases are
thickly set with spines.

The spadices grow from below the leaves ; they are
‘unbranched and bend downwards, and the spathes are
elongate, small, erect or horizontal, smooth and per-
sistent.

This pretty little species seems identical with one
described by Martius under the name of Bactris stm-
plicifrons. It is not uncommon in the dry Catinga
forests of the Upper Rio Negro.

90 PALM TREES

BACTRIS MARAJA, VMartws.
Maraja, Lingoa Geral.

This is a palm rather larger than most others of the
genus, and inhabiting the flooded banks of the Amazon.

It produces large clusters of fruit resembling small
black grapes, and having a thin pulp of an agreeable
subacid flavour,—a peculiarity not found in the fruit of
any other American palm that I am acquainted with.
The places where it grows are often so deeply flooded
that the fruit hangs close to the surface of the water,
and can be plucked while passing in a canoe.

Dried specimens of the tree and fruit are in the Mu-
seum, and young plants are growing in the Palm House
at Kew.

nt be

ees

Pl XXXV.

W. Fitch lith.

BACTRIS INTEGRIFOLIA, Ht.9Ft.

OF THE AMAZON. 91

PLATE XXXV.
BACTRIS INTEGRIFOLIA, 0. sp.
Iu, Lingoa Geral.

Tuts beautiful species has the stem hardly so thick as
the little finger, and nine or ten feet high, smooth and
distinctly jointed. The leaves are four or five in num-
ber, terminal, entire, three or four times as long as they
are wide, and not very deeply bifid at the end. The
petioles and their sheathing bases are thickly set with
long, flat, black spines.

The spadices are very small, erect and two-branched,
growing from among the persistent sheathing bases
below the leaves. The spathes are small, erect and
persistent, clothed with adpressed brown spines. The
fruit is small and globular, and of a black colour.

This palm was found at S. Carlos on the Upper Rio
Negro and on the “ Estrada de Javita,” a road through
the forest for ten miles, which connects the river-
systems of the Rio Negro and Orinoco, and along which
most of the traffic between Venezuela and Brazil passes.
In both cases it grew in the shady virgin forest.

92 PALM TREES

Genus GUILIELMA, Wartius.

Male and female flowers mixed in the same spadix,
bracteate. Spathe double; exterior bifid; interior
complete, woody. Male flowers with six stamens and
a rudimentary pistil. Female flowers with three sessile
stigmas, but with no rudiments of stamens.

The stems are lofty, rather slender, and armed with
dense black cylindrical spines disposed in regular rings.
The leaves are terminal and pinnate, but in the young
plants entire, and the petioles are very spiny. The
spadices are simply branched, growing from beneath
the leaves, and the fruits are large, ovate, fleshy or
mealy and eatable.

Three species only of this genus are known, inhabit-
ing the lower mountain ranges of Peru and New Gra-
nada. They are lofty and conspicuous Palms with a
remarkably handsome crown of foliage. One species
only is found in the Amazon district, in all parts of.
which it is commonly cultivated.

W. Fitch kth,

HAL:

GUILE

4

Se:

tar sSentory wre perrie hren a Peas jd

eS aaa

| iM A

‘ore

& West Ing

<All

OF THE AMAZON. 93

PLATE RE RVE:
GUILIELMA SPECIOSA, VWartius.

Puptnha, Lingoa Geral.
Pinijao, Indians of Venezuela, Humboldt.
“The Peach Palm.”

THIs most picturesque and elegant palm has the stem
slender, cylindrical, and thickly set with long needle-
shaped spines disposed in rings or bands. It reaches sixty
feet in height, and grows quite erect, though in exposed
situations it becomes curved and waving. The leaves
are very numerous, terminal, pinnate and drooping,
forming a nearly spherical crown to the stem; and the
leaflets growing out from the midrib in various direc-
tions, and being themselves curled or waved, give the
whole mass of foliage a singularly plumy appearance.
The young plants have the leaves entire like those of
the Busst, but as the age of the tree imcreases they
break up into regular narrow leaflets.

The spadices grow from beneath the leaves, and are
small, simply branched and drooping. The spathes
are ventricose, woody and persistent, curving over the
spadix.

The fruit is about the size of an apricot, of a trian-
gular oval shape, and fine reddish-yellow colour. In
most instances the seed is abortive, the whole fruit

OA. PALM TREES

being a farinaceous mass. Occasionally, however, fruits
are found containing the perfect stony seed, and they
are then nearly double the usual size. This production
of undeveloped fruits may be partly due to change of
soil and climate, for the tree is not found wild in the
Amazon district, but is invariably planted near the
Indians’ houses. In their villages many hundreds of
these trees may often be seen, adding to the beauty of
the landscape, and supplying the imhabitants with an
abundance of wholesome food. In fact it here takes
the place of the cocoa-nut in the East, and is almost as
much esteemed.

As the stems are so spiny, it is impossible to climb
up them to procure the fruit in the ordinary way. The
Indians therefore construct rough stages up the sides
of the trees, or form rude ladders by securing cross
pieces between two of them, by which they mount so
high as to be able to pull down the bunches of fruit
with hooked poles.

The fruits are eaten either boiled or roasted, when
they somewhat resemble Spanish chestnuts, but have a
peculiar oily flavour. They are also ground up into a
kind of flour, and made into cakes which are roasted
like cassava bread; or the meal is fermented in water
and forms a subacid creamy liquid. Parrots, macaws
and many other fruit-eatimg birds devour them, and
tame monkeys eat them greedily, though the wild ones .
cannot climb the spiny stems to obtain them. |

The wood of this tree when old and black is exceed-
ingly hard, turning the edge of any ordinary axe.
When descending the River Uaupes in April 1852, I

OF THE AMAZON. ' 95

had a number of parrots whose objections to any
restraint upon their liberty caused me much trouble.
Their first cage was of wicker, and in a couple of hours
they had all set themselves at liberty. Then tough
green wood was tried, but the same time only was
required to gnaw that through. Thick bars of deal
were bitten through in a single night, so I then tried
the hard wood of the Pashiiba. This checked them for
a short time, but in less than a week by continual
gnawing they had chipped these away and again
escaped. I now began to despair; no iron for bars
was to be procured and my resources were exhausted,
when one of my Indians recommended me to try Pu-
punha, assuring me that if their beaks were of iron they
could not bite that. A tree was accordingly cut down
and bars made from it, and I had the satisfaction of
seeing that their most persevering efforts now made
little impression.

The very sharp needle-like spines of this tree are
used by some tribes to puncture the skin, in order to
produce the tattooed marks with which they decorate
various parts of their bodies. Soot produced from
burning pitch rubbed into the wounds is said to make
the indelible bluish stain which these markings present.

This palm appears to be indigenous to the countries
near the Andes.. On the Amazon and Rio Negro it is
never found wild. It is mentioned by Humboldt as
having a smooth polished stem, which is a mistake.

Very fine specimens of this tree are growing in the
great Palm House at Kew. |

Plate III. fig. 4. represents a fruit of the natural size.
* |

96 PALM TREES

Genus ACROCOMIA, Wartius.

Female flowers in the inner, male flowers in the outer
‘part of the same spadix. Spathe complete, woody.
Male flowers with six stamens and a rudimentary pistil.
Female flowers with a short style and three stigmas,
and a ring of abortive stamens.

The stems of these Palms are tall, strong, and more
or less prickly. The leaves are large, pmnate, much
drooping, and forming a dense spherical head of foliage.
The leaflets are linear, and with the petioles are very
prickly. The spadix is simply branched, and the fruit
is round or oval, of an olive-green colour, and has a
firm fleshy outer covering, which is often eaten.

Kight species of this genus are known, inhabiting
various parts of South America, but more particularly
Brazil. One or perhaps two species are found at Para,
but none on the Upper Amazon, where the alluvial soil
and dense forests are unsuited to their growth,

| XXXVI

dD)
i

Zz
EE. ic
ZZ Ve y a
nel —
a {| = ae
a tC —=
—— = | lie sora
Tim a a
Se = = = 3
= VA LSB ZI Se

WS

a ww

Ye
Y,

y 27 =
c— ia
—— bee oy
od
Ais 7
f

——

-, ?
» mya
WS : >; SSS
| VES
BA)
NS, ~ S
==SSSxXssg
——
———
Hf a =
————
os
—
—==
\

NC
ee
os ey resnesensaa lyin Bes ‘

|
|
~~ Tord & West. Imp

W Finch Tith

\PATHA. Ht.40 Fe

S1OS

JAS

[

ROCOMIA

’
,

AC

OF THE AMAZON. 97

PLATE XXXVII.

ACROCOMIA LASIOSPATHA, Martius.
Mucuja, Lingoa Geral.

Tue stem of this tree is about forty feet high, strong,
smooth and ringed. The leaves are rather large, ter-
minal and drooping. The leaflets are long and narrow,
and spread irregularly from the midrib, every part of
which is very spy. The sheathing bases of the leaf-
stalks are persistent on the upper part of the stem, and
in young trees clothe it down to the ground.

The spadices grow from among the leaves, erect or
somewhat drooping, and are simply branched. The
spathes are woody, persistent and clothed with spines.
The fruit is the size of an apricot, globular, and of a
greenish-olive colour, and has athin layer of firm edible
pulp of an orange colour covering the seed.

This species is common in the neighbourhood of
Para, where its nearly globular crown of drooping
feathery leaves is very ornamental. The fruit, though
oily and bitter, is very much esteemed and is eagerly
sought after. It grows on dry soil about Para and
the Lower Amazon, but it is quite unknown in the
interior.

Several young plants of this and a species closely
resembling it, the A. sclerocarpa, are growing in the

K

98

Palm House at Kew, and in the Museum at the same
place are specimens of the stem and fruit sent by
Mr. Bates and myself from Para.

Martius mentions the A. sclerocarpa only as being
found at Para, but his description of the other species
agrees best with the tree here figured. The two, how-
ever, seem very closely allied, if they are really distinct
species.

A fruit is represented on the Plate of the natural
s1ze.

100 PALM TREES

Genus AstrocARyuUM, Weyer.

Female flowers few in number, situated beneath the
males on the same spadix. Spathe complete, woody.
Male flowers with six stamens and a rudimentary pistil.
Female flowers with three stigmas and a rudimentary
ring of stamens.

In this genus the stems are generally lofty and
thickly set with rmgs of spmes, but some species are
stemless. The leaves are large and pinnate, the leaflets
elongate and linear, and as well as the petioles very
prickly. The spadices are simply branched, and the
fruits are ovate or globose, with a fibrous or fleshy
covering, sometimes eatable.

Sixteen species of these Palms are known, inhabiting
Mexico, Brazil, and other parts of South America, but
not extending higher up the mountains than 2000 feet
above the sea. They have rather a repulsive aspect,
from almost every part,—stem, leaves, fruit-stalk and
spathe, being armed with acute spines in some cases a
foot long.

GT ae

= ene ¥

Y
AY,

\ A

Ford. & West Lp.

ARY UM MURUMUBRIS fie 20 2,

J

=!

ASTROC

OF THE AMAZON. 10L

PLATE XXXVITII.
AsTROCARYUM MURUMURU, Wartius.

Murumurt, Lingoa Geral.

Tuts palm has the stem from eight to twelve feet high,
irregularly rmged, and armed with long scattered black
spines. The leaves are terminal and of moderate size,
regularly pinnate, the leaflets spreading out uniformly
in one plane, elongate, acute, with the terminal pair
shorter and broader. The petioles and sheathing bases
are thickly covered with long black spines generally
directed downwards, and often eight inches long.

The spadices grow from among the leaves and are
simply branched and spiny, erect when in flower, but
drooping with the fruit. The spathes are elongate,
splitting open and deciduous. The fruit is of a mode-
rate size, oval, of a yellowish colour, and with a small
quantity of rather juicy eatable pulp covering the stony
seed. ,

On the Upper Amazon cattle eat the fruits of the
Murumurt, wandering about for days in the forest to
procure it. The hard stony seeds pass through their
bodies undigested and become thickly scattered over the
pastures adjoining the houses. They are so hard that
it is almost impossible to break them, except by a very
hard blow with a large hammer. The internal albumen
or kernel is also excessively hard, nearly approaching
to vegetable ivory. Yet pigs are very fond of these

102 PALM TREES

little cocoa-nuts, and on one estate on the Upper Ama-
zon where I was staying, they had scarcely anything else
to eat during a part of the year but those which had
passed through the stomachs of the cows. They might
constantly be seen cracking the shell with their powerful
jaws, and grinding up the hard kernels, on which the
teeth of few other animals could make any impression.
They not only existed on this food, but in some cases
got actually fat upon it. The black vultures (Cathartes)
occasionally eat the outer covering of this and other
palm fruits, when hard-pushed for food.

This tree grows on the tide-flooded lands of the
Lower Amazon and on the margins of the rivers and
gapos of the Upper Amazon, though it is possible that
the two may be distinct species. The specimen figured
is from near Pardé. There are living plants in the
Palm House at the Royal Kew Gardens.

A portion of a leaf is enlarged to show the spines,
and a fruit is represented of the natural size.

‘L XXKTX

sie
Ye ASTROCARYUM GYNACANTHUM.Ht.15 Ft

| *
| | >
| 4
| < « a
+” mn a
° : > * ‘+. . [=
sa a a —— ae Fe > Ses — ee = =
a ee ty Se
t« «¥ al
. > «
> °

OF THE AMAZON. 103

PLATE XXXIX.
ASTROCARYUM GYNACANTHUM, Martius.
Mumbaca, Lingoa Geral.

Tuis species has a rather slender stem about fifteen
feet high, covered with long, flat, black spines, arranged
in regular rmgs and pomting downwards. The leaves
are terminal, rather large and pinnate. The leaflets
spread regularly in one plane, and are elongate and
acute, the terminal pair being rather shorter and
broader. The bases of the petioles are broadly sheath-
ing, and are all densely spiny.

The spadices grow from the bases of the lower leaves,
and are erect when in flower, but hang down with the
ripe fruit, which grows in a dense cluster at the end of
the long stalk which is very spiny, as is also the elon-
gate persistent spathe. The fruit is small, ovate, of a
red colour and not eatable.

This palm grows in the virgin forests of the Upper
Rio Negro, and a nearly allied or perhaps identical
species is common about the city of Para.

iN ret
ih “Yip (EES: 5 ie ne ay
or « AS We /
ZS IN \ Si NY G
(\

==
=
“=

—

" Bade
=< SN = RVR . n N
yi il, <j Zs 7h Fe hE eh ss SS ee oF ae

/ Ai

Tmp

Ford. & West

ARE. Hy. 50g

as
~~

dL

em

_

105

PLATE XL.
ASTROCARYUM VULGARE, Wartius.
Tucim, Lingoa Geral.

Turs is a lofty tree, the stem growing to a height of
forty or fifty feet, with a diameter of six or eight imches.
It is covered with regular broad bands or rings of
thickly set black spies, with narrow spaces between
them. The leaves are terminal, large and regularly
pinnate. The leaflets are elongate, regularly spreading
and drooping. The midrib and expanded sheaths of
the petioles are densely clothed with long, flat, dusky
spines, having a pale expanded margin. The edges of
the leaflets are also armed with fine spines.

The spadix is erect and simply branched, and is often
hid among the foliage. The spathe is persistent, and
the fruit is oval, of a greenish colour and not eatable.

Every part of this palm bristles with sharp spmes so
as to render it difficult to handle any portion of it; yet
it is of great importance to the Indians, and in places
where it is not indigenous, is cultivated with care in
their mandiocca fields and about their houses, along
with the “ Puptinha” and other fruit trees. Yet they
use neither the fruit, the stem, nor the full-grown leaves.
It is only the unopened leaves which they make use of
to manufacture cordage, superior in fineness, strength
and durability to that procured from the Mauritia

106 PALM TREES

flecuosa. They strip off the epidermis and prepare it
in the same manner as described in the account of that
species, but while the “ miriti” is principally used for
hammocks, the “tucim” serves for bow strings, fish-
ing-nets and other purposes where fineness, combined
with strength, is-required. Some of the tribes on the
Upper Amazon, however, make all their hammocks of
“tucim,” which renders it probable that the Mauritia
flexuosa does not grow there.

The Brazilians of the Rio Negro and Upper Amazon
make very beautiful hammocks of fine “ tuctim” thread,
knitted by hand into a compact web of so fine a texture
as to occupy two persons three or four months in their
completion. They then sell at about £3 each, and
when ornamented with the feather-work borders, at
double that sum. Most of them are sent as presents to
Rio de Janeiro.

Dr. Martius has mistaken the species from which
this cordage is manufactured, stating it to be- the

“ Tucuma,”

which, though very nearly allied, is never
used for the purpose. The close resemblance of the
native names is probably what led to the mistake,
though they are never confounded by the Brazihans.
The “tuctim ” is found on the “terra firme” or dry
forest land of the Amazon and Rio Negro. It is grow-

ing in the Palm House at Kew.

P)] Vv

if y

W Fitch Wid

‘Ford & West nap

ASTROCARYUM TUCUMA. Ht.40 Fr.

OF THE AMAZON. 107

PLATE XLI.
ASTROCARYUM TUCUMA, Warts.
Tucuma, Lingoa Geral.

Tus palm is from thirty to forty feet in height, and
has the stem armed with narrow rings of black spines.
The leaves are terminal, rather large and regularly pin-
nate. The leaflets are elongate, lnear and much
drooping, and the midribs and petioles are very prickly.
The sheathing bases of the leaf-stalks are very much
swollen where they spring from the stem. The spadix
grows erect from among the leaves and is simply
branched. The fruit is nearly globular, of a greenish
yellow colour, with a layer of yellow fleshy pulp covering
the stony seed, much resembling the fruit of the Mu-
cujé and equally esteemed for food by the Indians.

This species is very nearly allied to the last, but may
readily be distinguished by its globular fruit, more
drooping leaflets, less prickly habit, and the peculiar
aspect of its swollen petioles. It is abundant near
Para, and is also found in the dry virgin forests of the
Upper Amazon and Rio Negro.

There are young living plants in the Palm House of
the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew.

Plate II. fig. 5. represents a fruit of the natural size.

pi bc

Pl. XLII
eae

f

W Fitch lith

ASTROCARYUM JAUARI. Ht 40 Ft

Ford & Wast. ap

109

PLATE XIII.
ASTROCARYUM JAUARI, Martius.
Jauari, Lingoa Geral.

Tue Jauari has the stem rather slenderer than the
Tucama, but of about equal height, and armed with
regular narrow rings of spines. The leaves are terminal
and of moderate size. The leaflets are long, narrow
and very much drooping, and the midribs and sheaths
are thickly covered with long, flat, black spines.

The spadices are erect, simply branched, and hidden
amongst the leaves. The fruit is small, oval, green,
and not eatable.

The rather small dense head of foliage, combined
with the prickly habit of this palm, render it altogether
one of the least pleasing of the family; and the feeling
is increased by its abundance in many localities, ex-
tending for miles along the river-banks to the exclusion
of any other species. It is moreover one of the least
useful among the larger palms, the only part which is
applied to any purpose being the hard, black, oval seeds,
of which the Brazilian ladies of the Upper Amazon make
heads for their lace-making bobbins.

This species is unknown in the neighbourhood of
Para and on the Lower Amazon. It first occurs near
Villa Nova, about five hundred miles up -the river,
where the tidal rise and fall of the water ceases and the

L

110 PALM ‘TREES

annual floods rise to a considerable height. From this
point upwards it is very abundant, growing everywhere
on the margins of the rivers, in places which are for six’
or eight months in the year under water. It is never
found beyond the limits of the floods, and in travelling
up the Rio Negro it is for hundreds of miles the only
species of Astrocaryum met with.

|

TS

G7

=) ZZ
uc

'
%

tt
Se

V5 ese
"x

F

W Bitch lith Ped & West Imp.

ASTROCARYUM ACULEATUM. Ht.20.Ft.

s OF THE AMAZON. Tt

PLATE XIUITI.
ASTROCARYUM ACULEATUM ? Meyer.
Maraya, Lingoa Geral.

Tuis small species has the stem from fifteen to twenty
feet high and about two inches in diameter, with
obscure rings of spines at irregular intervals. The
leaves are terminal, rather large and regularly pinnate.
The leaflets are narrow, rigid and scarcely drooping,
with the terminal pair broader. The midrib and
leaflets are smooth, but the bases and sheaths of the
petioles are very prickly.

The spadices grow from below the leaves and are
very small and simply branched. The spathes-are
small, ovate, swollen, erect, persistent and very prickly.
The trees were not found in fruit.

This tree agrees pretty well with Dr. Martius’ de-
scription of A. aculeatum. It grows in the virgin
forest of the Upper Rio Negro.

3169H FINVOV NNAXVOOULSV

SS

SSO ANS Z NS
) ZANE L\\\S - —~ SZ WS Ww Z =.
Ron NY \ S igi : =e Zs SY WSS = ~ : ,
= Z i, = ~ t é SZ Ssx x : ys
3 (2 SESS QS
SSS ee SSS S

—<Z

——

113

PLATE XLIV.
ASTROCARYUM ACAULE, Wartius.

Iu, Lingoa Geral.

Tuts palm never has any stem, the leaves springing at
once from the ground. They are eight or ten feet long,
slender and pinnate. The leaflets are very narrow and
drooping, and are disposed in groups of three or four,
at intervals along the midrib, the separate leaflets
standing out in different directions. The whole plant
is exceedingly spiny, the midnb and petioles having
long, flat, black spines directed downwards, and the
leaflets are also spiny beneath.

The spadix grows from among the leaves on a long
stalk and is simply branched. The spathe is elongate
and fusiform, at first erect, but gradually bends over at
the end, forming a hood over the fruit, and is densely
clothed with spines. The fruit is oval with a produced
apex, of a pale yellow colour, and has a thin layer of
firm pulp which is sometimes eaten, but is not very
agreeable.

_ The rind of the leaf-stalks of this palm is used by
the Indians for making baskets. It grows in the dry
Catinga forests of the Upper Rio Negro, often covering

114 PALM TREES

large tracts of ground. It has altogether a rather

repulsive and inelegant appearance. .
A fruit is shown on the Plate of the natural size,

and a spadix reduced showing the spathe bent over it.

“I
Ait
AN

SA

SLy

(

\
ee
(Ze

(ij Mp L
| FAL nD
Lr N eC (ge

EX 5’
SECS
AS \

ASTROCARYUM HUMILE. Ht.9Ft.

OF THE AMAZON, 115"

PLATE XLV.
ASTROCARYUM HUMILE, 0. sp.
lu, Lingoa Geral.

Tuts species has a stem two or three feet high, or is
altogether stemless like the last. The leaves are six
or eight feet long, slender and pinnate. The leaflets
are much broader than in A. acaule, similarly disposed
in spreading groups, but not so much drooping. The
midribs and petioles are armed with long, slender,
cylindrical spines pointing in various directions.

The spadices grow from among the leaves and are
erect and simply branched. The spathes are erect or
somewhat curved over the fruit, and clothed with
thickly set bristly spmes. The fruit is globular,
covered with scattered stiff hairs, and of an orange-red
colour. It is not eatable.

This species is not uncommon in the same situations
as the last. The specimen with a stem was growing in
a moister part of the forest. It seems to be an unde-
scribed species.

The stemless and short-stemmed state of this plant
are shown on the Plate, and a fruit is represented of
the natural size.

116 PALM TREES

Genus ATTALEA, Humboldt.

Flowers bracteate, male and female in the same spa-
dix, and male in another spadix, on the same or on a
different tree. Spathes double, the interior one complete
and woody. Male flowers with from six to twenty-four
stamens and a small rudimentary pistil. Female
flowers with a short style and three stigmas, and a cup-
shaped ring of rudimentary stamens.

The stems of these palms are generally lofty, cylin-
drical and smooth, but there are some stemless species.
The leaves of all are very handsome, large and regularly
pinnate ; the petioles have the margins of the sheathing
bases often more or less fibrous. The spadix grows
from among the lower leaves, and is simply branched ;
and the fruit is ovate or oblong, and has a dry fibrous
outer covering.

Sixteen species of these beautiful Palms are known,
inhabiting various parts of South America, from the
level of the sea to a height of 4000 feet above it.. Their
smooth and regularly pinnate leaves render them very
suitable for thatching. One species, the A. funifera,
produces a fibre very similar to that of the Leopoldinia
ptassaba, and the stony seeds from the same tree supply
a kind of vegetable ivory.

ANY
WA Sigs FE

a\\ Z Zp
3 Why Z
a] ) /

LES

Rod & West Tap

‘oma, t 1
i p
a ) SA a Le J

-
>
ae,
oo
ty
i
>
SA
he
/
tq
=
t—
aay
se,
Ca)
AY
=
oO?
S
Ls |
ad

OF THE AMAZON. ER?

PLATE XLVI.
ATTALEA SPECIOSA, Wartius.

Uauasst, Lingoa Geral.

Tuts noble palm has the stem fifty or sixty feet high,
straight, cylindrical and nearly smooth. The leaves are
very large, terminal and regularly pinnate. The leaflets
are elongate, rigid, closely set together, and spreading
out flat on each side of the.midrib. The sheathing
bases of the petioles are persistent for a greater or less
distance down the stem, and in young trees down to
the ground, as in the Ginocarpus batawd.

The spadices grow from among the leaves and are
large and simply branched. The fruit is of large size
compared with most American palms, being about three
inches long, and from this circumstance it derives its ©
native name “ Uauassu,” signifying “ large fruit.”

The foliage of this tree is very extensively used for
thatching. The young plants produce very large leaves
before the stem is formed, and it is in this state that
they are generally used. The unopened leaves from
the centre are preferred, as, though they require some
preparation, they produce a more uniform thatch. The
leaf is shaken till it falls partially open, and then each
leaflet is torn at the base so as to remain hanging by
its midrib only, which is however quite sufficient to
secure it firmly. They thus hang all at right angles to

118

the midrib of the leaf, which admits of their being laid
in a very regular manner on the rafters. They are
generally known as “ palha branca”’ or “white thatch,”
from the pale yellow colour of the unopened leaves, and
are considered the best covering for houses in places
where Bussti cannot be obtained.

This species grows on the dry forest lands of the
Upper Amazon. On the Rio Negro a stemless species
called “Curud” (Attalea spectabilis) is found and is
often used for thatching. On the Lower Amazon and
in the neighbourhood of Para the Attalea excelsa is not
uncommon. It isa handsome lofty species which grows
on lands flooded at high tides, and is called by the
natives Urucuri. The fruit of this tree is burnt, and
the smoke is used to black the newly made india-rubber.
Martius says that the fruit of the A. speciosa is used
for this purpose, but that species is not found in the
principal rubber districts, while the A. excelsa is abun-
dant there.

Several species of Aftalea are cultivated in the Palm
House at Kew.

Plate III. fig. 1. is a fruit of Attalea ise of
the natural. size.

120 PALM TREES

Genus MaxiIminiana, Wartius.

Some spadices with only male flowers, others with
male and female flowers on the same tree. Spathes

large, complete, woody. Flowers with bracts. Male —

flowers with three or six stamens, and with a mimute
rudimentary pistil. Female flowers with a short style
and three stigmas, and rudimentary stamens forming a
membranaceous cup.

The stems of these magnificent Palms are tall, erect
and smooth. The leaves are very large and irregularly
pinnate. The bases of the petioles are persistent, often
covering the stem quite down to the ground. The
spathe is woody, complete, longitudinally cut and beaked.
The spadices grow from among the lower leaves and are
simply branched, but very densely clustered with the
fruit, which is ovate, and has a dry external covering.

Only three species of this genus are known, all very

handsome plants. One is a native of the West India
Islands, one of Brazil, and a third is common in the
Amazon district. |

é

4

oy jsiilpiboracransaqanmadcrsniied 4

Ford & West inmp

Witch Tith

VILIANA REGIA. Ht.80 Fe.

h

KT
M BRA

OF THE AMAZON. 121

PLATE XLVII.

MAXIMILIANA REGIA, Martius.
Inaja, Lingoa Geral.

Tus palm has a lofty massive stem, smooth and ob-
scurely ringed. The leaves are very large, terminal
and pinnate. The leaflets are arranged in groups of
three, four or five, at intervals along the midrib, from
which they stand out in different directions, and are
very long and drooping. The bases of the petioles are
persistent a short distance down the stem, and some-
times down to the ground, even when the trees are
forty or fifty feet high.

The spadices are numerous, growing from the bases
of the lower leaves. They are simply branched and
very densely clustered. The spathes are large, spindle-
' shaped, ventricose and woody, with a long beak. The
fruits are elongate and beaked, with a tough, brown,
outer skin, beneath which is a layer of soft fleshy pulp
of an agreeable subacid flavour, covering a hard stony
seed. | :

The leaves of this tree are truly gigantic. I have

measured specimens which have been cut by the In-

dians fifty feet long, and these did not contain the

entire petiole, nor were they of the largest size. Owing,

however, to the loose irregular distribution of the
M

122

leaflets, they do not produce such an effect of great
size as those of the Jupati, which are more regular.
The great woody spathes are used by hunters to cook
meat in, as with water in them they stand the fire well.
They are also used as baskets for carrying earth, and
sometimes for cradles. The fruits are often eaten by
the Indians, and are particularly attractive to monkeys
and to some fruit-eating birds.

This magnificent palm is abundant from Para to the
Upper Amazon and the sources of the Rio Negro. It
grows only in the dry virgin forest.

Young trees are growing in the Palm House at Kew,
and fruit clusters and spathes are preserved in the
Museum.

Plate III. fig. 3. is a view of the spathe, and fig. 2.
represents a fruit, the natural size.

124 PALM TREES

Genus Cocos, Linneus.

Female flowers less plentiful than the males, and
situated below them in the same spadix. Spathe
double, outer small, interior woody. Flowers with
bracts. Male flowers with six stamens and a rudi-
mentary pistil. Female flowers with three stigmas.

The stems of this genus are lofty, generally cylin-
drical and smooth. The leaves are large and regularly
pinnate. The spadix is simply branched, and the fruit
is ovate oblong, and with an outer fibrous covering.

Highteen species of Cocos are known, seventeen
being natives of South America, principally of Brazil,
while one only, the well-known Cocoa-nut, is a native
of the Old World, though it is now universally culti-
vated in every part of the tropics. Few species of the
genus are found in the Amazon district. They appear
to prefer drier and more elevated countries, some of
them reaching an altitude of near 8000 feet above
the sea.

Dee BY
{ ita

. i
wy Paw +

. A . bie X,

« » 2 F

—— ‘4 eerie = ere i

4

.

Ni U 1

> * ae
zx ne

5
aed

oe ee

‘ f

+ oe

ee a
~,

Or

OF THE AMAZON. 12

PLATE XLVIII.

Cocos NUCIFERA, Linneus.

Coqueiro, Portuguese.

The Cocoa-nut.

Tue stem of this well-known palm is very smooth,
seldom quite erect, and often much thicker at the bottom.
The leaves are large, terminal and regularly pinnate.
The leaflets are rigid, and spread out very flat on each
side of the midrib. From the sheathing bases of the
petioles grows a compact fibrous material resembling in
texture the spathe of the Bussu.

The spadices are produced from among the leaves,
and are large and simply branched. The fruits are very
large, and have a dense fibrous external covering over
the well-known cocoa-nut.

This tree is not a native of South America, but as it
is generally cultivated in every part of the tropics, I
have given a figure of it. Its peculiar characteristic
is the rigidity of its leaves, which curve or droop very
slightly, and the leaflets spread out with remarkable
flatness and regularity. The stem also is rather
massive in accordance with the immense weight of
fruit which it produces, and the whole tree, though
exceedingly handsome, has not that light and feathery
appearance which it is often represented as possessing.
It is not impossible, however, that it may have ac-

126 PALM TREES

quired by its naturalization in America an aspect
differing somewhat from its characteristic features
when growing on the sea-shore, on the coral islands
of India and the Pacific.

There it is of the greatest utility toman. It supplies
food and drink and oil. Its fibres are woven into
cordage and matting, and it even furnishes animal as
well as vegetable food, herds of swine being fed and
fattened entirely on its fruit. |

On the banks of the Amazon, on the contrary, we
see at once that it is in a foreign land. It flourishes
indeed with great luxuriance, but no part of it is applied
to any useful purpose, the fruit only being consumed as
an occasional luxury. In the towns and larger villages
where the Portuguese have settled it has been planted,
but among the Indians of the interior it 1s still quite
unknown.

OF THE AMAZON. 127

List OF THE PALMS DESCRIBED IN THIS WoRK, WITH
THEIR Native NaMEs AND UsEs.

Botanical Name. Native Name. Uses.
Leopoldinia
pulehra: ..3....:. 4 CLC Se Ta Stem used for fencing, rafters, &c.
IMMIOY cecioccscs ss Jara assi....... .. Fruit for making salt.
piassaba......... Piassabar 26s. Fibre for cordage, brooms, &c.;
leaves for thatching ; fruit eat-
able.
Euterpe
oleracea......... INSHAT, | och escutsees Fruit for making a drink; stem

for rafters, &c.
catinga ......... Assai de Catinga. Fruit for making a drink.

(nocarpus

DAGCADAD ccc evcee BACEADR. ccadecees Fruit makes a drink and oil ; leaves
for thatching.

batawa ......... Patawa ....... .. Fruit makes a drink; spinous pro-
cesses used for making arrows.

disticha ....... so PRCCAUR: mane dae Leaves for thatching.

iC Baccaba miri ... Fruit makes a drink.

Iriartea

PxOrhiza.......:. Pashitba......... Stem split for floors and ceilings,
&c.; air-roots for graters.

ventricosa ...... Pashiiba barri- Stem split for lances, harpoons,

guda floors, &c.; swollen part of stem
for canoes.

Setigera ......... Pashidba miri... Stem hollowed for making blow-
tubes or Gravatanas.

Raphia

teedigera......... Jupati ............ Leaf-stalks split for making boxes,

partitioning houses, doors, &c.
Mauritia

flexuosa......... Miruti ............ Fruit makes a drink; fibres of
leaves are twisted into string
for hammocks, &c.; leaf-stalks
as the last.

aculeata......... Caranat <0... c0s9 Fruit makes a drink.

rACHHS 055. .55. Garatar’’ 0... Fruit makes a drink.

pumila .......0 Wuramit “222.3... Not known.

GUPARA .5.c0cys CaTANa....2.5% ... Leaves good for thatch; leaf-
stalks used as those of Raphia
tedigera.

Lepidocaryum

TEND. .3::... ..-. Caranai do Mato. None.

128 PALM TREES

Botanical Name. Native Name. Uses.
Geonoma
multiflora ...... Ubimrana......

Cabin de Coke These species and others allied all

paniculigera .. have the leaves more ur less

wiya E
rectifolia ....... bigs ean nse
Manicaria
saccifera ........ BUSSu thesecmcece: Leaves the best for thatching;
spathe for caps, wrappers, &c.
Desmoncus
macroacanthus. Jacitéra ......... Bark makes “tipitis”’ or elastic
cylinders for squeezing the
grated mandiocca.
Bactris
pectinata ...... | are orc
DUB saheelsielen stele sa Marayarana ...
elatior .\.\..ss08. Marayarana ... | These little prickly palms seem
MiSeveitsenion cneeeer Unknown ...... not to be applied to any parti-
MULCTOCAL DA 00 AM sessacscn nesses | cular uses.
PORTIS 2. J05.0: Be isteeiee Sk |
simplicifrons ... FU .scs0s.i.ases0e
PinraM + Sieh! Maraja.s iis Fruit eatable.
ILE RLOliA 1.) Aas fe0s Losedent oa None.
Guilielma
speciosa...... ose MMIPONS 0 56:0.5050% Fruit very good and nutritious;
wood very hard, black and du-
rable.
Acrocomia
lasiospatha ..... Mucuja ......... Fruit eatable.
Astrocaryum
murumurt...... Murumura ...... Cattle eat fruit.
gynacanthum... Mumbaca ...... None.
WUIPATE .sceoses. DCO. Nauveegver Leaf-fibres for cordage.
tHiCUMA ..<....., AMOUR co cece, Fruit eatable.
\auaia d.c2...0s SHAT sot, sce sees: Nuts for lace-bobbin heads.
aculeatum ...... Maraya ......... None. Others with the same
name have eatable fruit.
acaule ....... aids Lik panssaiads ooPaidspes Bark of leaf-stalks for baskets.
Inuimile i..5 de Mi ain waegveaghonss Fruit eatable.
Attalea
speciosa......+ ne WBMES secs ccnts Leaves for thatch.
CXCEIRD Locve Fee: PPGENT .. cai scaiee Fruit burnt for smoking rubber.
spectabilis ...... MNS oo assis agen Leaves for thatch.
Maximiliana
TORE Jit cewi lth 8 en are Fruit eatable.
Cocos

OF THE AMAZON. 129

The genera of Palms found in America are thirty-
six in number. Thirty-two of these are entirely con-
fined to it, while only four are common to the Old and
New Worlds, as shown in the following list :—

List OF THE AMERICAN GENERA OF PALMS.

No. of species Species Species of
mentioned found American
in this in Genera in the
Work. America. Old World.

Name of Genus.

Chamedorea .........
Elyospathe: .........-2.
a ee
WOOD INA. 2. ekccs Toes’

—

PEMRET PE: \2 ec cccicccceenes
CEnocarpus ............
WIGEQUORID. . <<. sees scccs
Bemhardtia....0<css.s:
Lo ee

LOL, ere eee

Lepidocaryum.........
GeGnOMA < os. c.c0s00..
RIAMICOTIA. | sccnodetes<:
GPCL NICIE cose aans sas
RPA ED sie fac Sen vo dacaee
PIED, conn secede snceed
gaa) le
Chamerops ............
1) a

oo
NE OOO WOH TO PRWOKRONNON OH WN OH WOH OON LK Ne

i

SG a
Mattimezia: .o..<ccc0ss-
PETOCOMMA. 62..cusccnes
Astrocaryum .........
TET a ee
ST Gr re
Maxtmilianha ......6.
PDI RIIA wes eisiee sds:
SC ees
Diplothemium.........
RMN GW «Je sadeecedeswecs

—_

HOSCOCORF WODKH SK SEF OOO CCOFP WOE N RK OP ODP RWWOO CSO
—

mromnroeooeorwoqoocoqeoqocqcoecqcaqoqoqcoqoocoeconoqcoeqececqc$ce@qcoqoqce|];}6c

—"

POths .eccec0s% 52 285

_
oO

‘ ‘ Xak :

Sy)

D FRANCI

PRINTED BY TAYLOR AN

pit i
ne CEs hsp
Der, tor

te the aes lok AY at 7A Aa LAY pathy ab mantic

.

“My
|
Ls

aa ks
re

tel aih ta
uted
cobb

SS anetne oA

4

Ny her
Bie BANC hy ah!

Wee

oe

gee eH

\ y
PETS alts a ene)
ROU

mabey if
mica ig i (a
ty | F)
‘ ;

Av

(care es me }

UEAIRY)
’

Wilke y PANT
A

Phish

¢ f oe . Sy, es 7 wy ;
4 , i Sade A ie evi ob Tee wi,
Tate mY ery AM 4 ies i P i

Treaty ate
/ ad cat

yy “ } att Wis a

ot
i

2-8

ma igh

ak ta =
oY,