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PALM TREES OF THE AMAZON

AND THEIR

USES.

BY

ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE.

WITH FORTY-EIGHT

PLATES,

LONDON:
JOHN VAN VOORST,

PATERNOSTER ROW

1853,

PRINTED BY TAYLOR AND FRANCIS3

RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET.

IDiU

PREFACE.

1 HE materials
travels

1852.

for this

work were

on the Amazon and

Though

collected during

my

from 1848 to

its tributaries

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.

forests of the

be seen in

Amazon

all its

In the vast

valley, tropical vegetation is to

luxuriance.

Huge

trees with but-

tressed stems, tangled climbers of fantastic forms,

and

strange parasitical plants everywhere meet the admiring

gaze of the

naturalist

heaths of Europe.

fresh from the

Everywhere too

meadows and

rise the

graceful

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

PREFACE.

IV

the most striking and characteristic feature.

districts

and

which

I visited

In the

they were everywhere abundant,

soon became interested in them, from their great

variety

and beauty of form and the many uses

they are applied.

first

which

to

endeavoured to familiarize

myself with the aspect of each species and to learn to

know

it

by

its

name; but even

native

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,

More

and had widely

different properties

and

uses.

me

that external characters did exist

close examination, however, convinced

species could be separated

to

it,

and

from those most nearly

was soon pleased to find that

stinguish one

natives themselves.
peculiarities of

forest,

almost as certainly as the

then endeavoured to define the

its

and made accurate sketches and

descriptions to impress

them upon

peculiarities are often very slight,

in the roots, the extent to

visible

form or structure which gave to each

individual character,

ground

allied

I could di-

palm from another, though barely

above the surrounding

by which every

my memory.

These

though permanent

which they appear above the

in the stem, the thickness,

species varies within very definite limits,

which in each

the swelling of

PREFACE.

the base, the middle or the summit,

marked,

the

generally erect

number, direction and form of the

spines or tubercles with which

leaves, the erect or

its

the nature of the rings with which

or curving position,
it is

is

it

armed;

drooping position, the

size

in the

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.
is

The

fruit spike or spadix

either erect or drooping, either simple, forked, or

branched

and the

in size, in shape,

many-

fruits in closely allied species vary

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

the species here figured are new, and

it.

Several of

among them

is

the Palm which produces the " piassaba," the coarse

fibrous material of
are

now

which brooms

for street-sweeping

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

PREFACE.

VI

indebted to the magnificent work of Dr. Martius.

the botanist I trust

my

little

in giving accurate figures

which he

is

To

book may be of some use,

of

many

entire plants, of

only acquainted with small portions, and in

supplying an account of the uses to which they are

And

applied in the distant regions where they grow.

to the general reader I

hope

it

may not be uninteresting,

and rude people in

as exhibiting a glimpse of a wild

the lowest state of civilization, whose existence

is inti-

mately connected with the products of the surrounding-

among which

forests,

the plants under consideration

hold so prominent a place ; and of these

accompanying Plates

will give a

it is

hoped the

more accurate idea

than the stereotyped figures which often represent the

" feathery palm trees M in our popular works.

Some

of the fruits of which I

had no drawings, have

been figured from specimens in the

collected

by Mr. R. Spruce, who

the Botany of the

Amazon

London, October 1853.

valley.

is

Museum
still

at

Kew

investigating

LIST OF PLATES.
Plate

Map showing the

distribution of

piece)

Palms

in

America {Frontisi

Fruits of Palms, containing,

1.

Raphia

2.

Mauritia flexuosa,

3.

Manicaria saccifera,

taedigera.

4.

Lepidocaryum tenue

5.

Astrocaryum tucuma.

6.

Leopoldinia pulchra.

(all

of the natural size)......

Fruits of Palms, containing,

1.

Attalea spectabilis.

2.

Maximiliana

3.

Spathe of Maximiliana regia (reduced)

regia.

4. Guilielma speciosa (all of the natural size).

Leopoldinia pulchra

major

giassaba

Euterpe oleracea

catinga

CEnocarpus baccaba

batawa (with

10

fruit)

batawa (with arrow and quiver)

10, 11

12

Iriartea exorhiza

Roots of an Iriartea

13

Iriartea ventricosa (with a fruit)

14

setigera (with fruit

and Gravatana)

15

Raphia tsedigera

16

Mauritia flexuosa (with a leaf)

1/

carana

18

aculeata

19

gracilis

20

pumila

21

LIST OF PLATES.

V1U

Plate

22

Lepidocaryum tenue

Geonoma

23

multiflora (with fruit)

24

paniculigera

25

rectifolia (with fruit)

26

Manicaria saccifera (with a spathe)

Desmoncus macroacanthus

27

(with a fruit)

28

Bactris pectinata (with a fruit)

29

n.s

30

elatior
n.s. (with

31

a leaflet)

macrocarpa (with a

fruit

and

leaflet)

'.

32
33

tenuis (with spadix)

simplicifrons

34

integrifolia

35

Guilielma speciosa (with Uaupes Indian's house)

36

Acrocomia lasiospatha (with

37

Astrocaryura

murumuru

gynacanthum

fruit)

(with fruit and part of leaf)

38
39

vulgare

40

tucuma (with young plant)

41

jauari

42

aculeatum

43

acaule (with spadix and fruit)

44

humile (with

45

Attalea speciosa

fruit)

46

Maximiliana regia

47

Cocos nucifera

48

Ford & West Imp

RLaphia Laedigera
aria

5 /v u

2.Mauritia

fora

[Ie

en

^Lepidocaryum

nearyum tucurna 6 Leopoldmia pulchra.

PA

Ibrdft'/Ves'.

tabilis.

?,

...

...rLea

Maximiliana regia
i

exorhiza.

speciosa.

r$>

PALM TREES OF THE AMAZON

AND THEIR

USES.

INTRODUCTION.
X

ALMS are endogenous or ingrowing plants, belonging

same great

to the

as the Grasses,

division of the Vegetable

Bamboos,

not to that which contains

They

all

stems

plants,

our English forest

trees.

most of the above-

and probably reach a great

jtre simple or

Kingdom

and Pineapples, and

are perennial, not annual like

named
and

Lilies

age.

Their

very rarely forked, slender, erect,

cylindrical, not tapering 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

or head at the
large

size,

summit of the

tree

bunch

they are of very

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
tion, or are

The margins

folded

and they have a

plicate verna-

up lengthways before they open.

of the sheathing bases of the leaf-stalks

PALM TREES
and give out a variety of singular

are often fibrous,

processes.

The

flowers are numerous, small, symmetrical, un-

coloured, or obscurely so, six-parted, and hermaphrodite

They

or polygamous.

are produced in a spadix from

the axils of the leaves, and are generally enclosed in a

The ovary

spathe or sheath.

celled or three-lobed,

or seed-vessel

but the fruit

seeded from abortion, and the seed

is

three-

generally one-

is

large and albu-

is

minous with a fibrous or fleshy covering.

Palms are almost exclusively

tropical plants, very

few species being found in the temperate zone, and

warmer

those only in the

we approach
become both

parts of

it,

while the nearer

equator the more numerous

the

in species

a Prussian botanist

and

and

individuals.

traveller in

they

Dr. Martius,

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

Palms

limit of

The

to the tropic of Cancer.

transition

North Palm Zone, from the

Cancer to 10 north

tropic of

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,

The South Palm Zone, from the

to the southern limit of the family.

and
tropic of Capricorn

OF THE AMAZON.

The Northern

Palms

limit of

is,

in

Europe 43

of

Asia 34, and in America 34.

latitude, in

The Southern

limit

is

New

34 in Africa, 38 in

Zealand, and 36 in South America.

To the north

of the tropic of Cancer there are

of Palms

species

of

tropic

known, and

Capricorn only

the

to

we advance

while as

13,

from either side towards the equator the number

until in the Chief

creases,

and 10 south

in-

Zone, between 10 north

there

latitude,

43

south of the

more than 300

are

Map).

species (see Frontispiece

In the Old World, the rich islands of the Eastern

Archipelago produce the greatest number of Palms
the New, the great valleys of the

on the main land, are most

In proportion to

its

in

Amazon and Orinoco

prolific.

extent,

America

is

the most pro-

ductive palm country; for while the Old World, in-

cluding Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Eastern Archipelago, with

contain

307

New

Holland and

all

the Pacific Islands,

New World

species, the

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

The

total

than 600.

42 kinds of Palms.

number

of

Palms

at present

known

Dr. Martius thinks that the probable

ber existing on the earth

may be from 1000

b2

to

is less

num1200

PALM TREES

though, as similar calculations have hitherto almost invariably been proved, as our
far

below the truth,

may

render double this

knowledge increased, to be

not unlikely that a few years

it is

number a more probable

esti-

mate.

Palms present

to our view the

picturesque, as well as
in the vegetable

most graceful and

some of the most majestic forms

kingdom.

Though many

a sameness of aspect, yet there

is

of

them have

a sufficient contrast

and variety of forms to render them interesting objects

The stems

in the landscape.

some

in

species do not

appear above the ground, in others they

the

rise to

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

trail their long flexible stems over trees

hang

in tangled festoons

The trunks

of

some

too,

which

and shrubs, or

between them.
are

almost perfectly smooth,

others rough with concentric rings, or clothed with a

woven

or hairy fibrous covering, which binds together

Many

the sheathing bases of the fallen leaves.

thickly beset with cylindrical or

10 inches long and

fallen leaves

spines, often

as sharp as a needle

and stems of these

to the traveller

flat

who attempts

are

8 or

and the

offer a serious obstacle

to penetrate the tropical

forests.

The

leaves are large

and often gigantic, surpassing

those of any other family of plants.

they are 50 feet long and 8 wide

In some species

these are pinnate or

composed of numerous long narrow

leaflets

placed at

OP THE AMAZON.

right angles to the midrib, but in others the leaves are

entire

and undivided, and yet are 30

length and

form of

or 5 in width.

leaf is the fan-shaped,

siderable

number

feet or

of species, and gives

them such
it,

to ordinary

most palpable feature dividing the whole

The Palms having

family into two distinct groups.

fan-shaped leaves

are,

however, comparatively few, being

known

only 91 out of 582

The

in

which characterizes a con-

completely different aspect, as to render

observers, the

more

But the most remarkable

flowers are small

species.

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

attracts

a very powerful

swarms of minute

insects

odour, which

and a newly-burst

palm spathe may often be discovered by the buzzing

cloud of small

The

flies

and

beetles

which hover over

fruits are generally small,

the size of the trees

the

common

of the largest in the whole family.

is

when compared with

cocoa-nut being one

woody; but

many

The*kernel of

too hard to be eaten, and the outer covering

fibrous or

it.

is

often

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,

the stem

all

and

having 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

PALM TREES

most important necessaries

cases furnishing the

for

existence.

The Cocoa-nut
and

fruit,

countries

and

oil

made

fibrous

its

and

coir ropes,

it

its fibre,

hundred purposes
from

are obtained

of

to us only as

but in

its

native

food and drink

hats and baskets are

its fruit,

huts are covered with

its leaves,

is

the very

staff of life

but an agreeable

fruit,

men and

but to the Arab

camels almost

and

To us

are applied to a variety of uses.

the Date

live

it is

upon

and on the abundance of the date harvest depends

the wealth and almost the existence of

It

tribes.

is

inhabitable

palm

and

many

desert

those inhospitable

truly indigenous to

wastes of burning sand, which without

oil

an agreeable

husk supplies ns with matting,

stuffing for mattresses

serves a

its leaf-stalks

it,

known

is

it

would be un-

by man.

tree of Africa, the JEleis guianensis, gives ns

candles.

It inhabits those parts of the

where the slave trade

is

carried on,

and

it is

country

thought by

persons best acquainted with the subject that the extension of the trade in
tual check to that

may be
zation

palm

inhuman

oil will

traffic

be the most

so that a

palm

the means of spreading the blessings of

and humanity among the persecuted negro

Sago

is

another product of a palm, which

effec-

is

tree

civili-

race.

of com-

paratively little importance to us, but in the East supplies the daily food of thousands.

Indian Archipelago

it

In many parts of the

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.
is

worthy

gifts of

to be classed with these the

nature to mankind.

most precious

Unlike them, however,

seed nor root, but

neither

is

is

the wood

itself,

it

the

pithy centre of the stem, requiring scarcely any preparation to

fit

it

for food

single tree often yields six

The canes used

and

it is

so

abundant that a

hundred pounds weight.

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

and as four millions of them are imported

feet,

number

into this country annually, a great

must

find

employment

of persons

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 jpartly fermented

the
is

Toddy

is

the palm wine of Africa and

of the East Indies

and a similar beverage

procured from the Mauritia vinifera and other species

in

South America.

Indeed, at the

dwell a nation of Indians

mouth

of the Orinoco

whose existence depends

almost entirely on a species of Palm, supposed to be

the Mauritia flexuosa.

on

its

They build

their houses elevated

trunks, and live principally

sap, with fish

Among

upon

its

fruit

and

from the waters around them.

the most singular products of palm trees are

the resins and

wax produced by some

fruits of a species of

species.

The

Calamus of the Eastern Archipelago

are covered with a resinous substance of a red colour,

PALM TREES

common

which, in

other trees,

with a similar product from some

the Dragon's blood of commerce, and

is

is

used as a pigment, for varnish, and in the manufacture

The Ceroxylon

of tooth powder.

palm

andicola, a lofty

growing in the Andes of Bogota, produces a resinous

wax which

secreted in its stem

is

habitants of the country for

is

leaves covered with white wax,

The

is

for

found a palm tree called Carnauba,

Copernicia cerifera, having the underside

of resin, but

in-

Again, in some of the northern pro-

other purposes.
vinces of Brazil

the

and used by the

making candles and

of

its

which has no admixture

as pure as that procured

from our

hives.

leaves of palms, however, are applied to the

greatest variety of uses

hats, baskets

thatch for houses, umbrellas,

in countless varieties are

made

tropical country possesses

some

and cordage

from them, and every

species adapted to these varied purposes,

perate zones are generally supplied

The Chip,

class of plants.

which in tem-

by a very

different

or Brazilian-grass hats, so

cheap in this country, are made from the leaves of a

palm

which grows in Cuba, whence they are im-

tree

ported for the purpose

argentea

and

in Sicily

humilis (the only

manner

to

an

the palm

is

the

allied species, the

European palm),

is

Chamcerops

Chamarops

applied in a similar

form hats, baskets, and a variety of useful

articles.

The papyrus
tallic plates

of the ancient Egyptians,

and the me-

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.
ters of the Pali

and Sanscrit languages were inscribed

The

with a metallic point.

are used for this purpose,

leaves of the Corypha taliera

and when strung together,

form the volumes of a Hindu

library.

Malays

is

furnished

Areca catechu

is

the betel-

favourite stimulant too of the

The

fruit of the

nut, which they

chew with

by a palm.

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

domestic economy

which

is

now

is

brushes

We

own

the fibre of a palm, the Piassaba,

generally used for coarse brooms and

and in the valley of the Amazon, of which

a native, the

cables,

is

same material

is

it

manufactured into

which are cheap and very durable in the water.

have now glanced

at a

few of the most important

uses to which Palms are applied, but in order to be able to

appreciate

how much

the native tribes of the countries

where they most abound are dependent on this noble family

of plants,

and how they take part

in almost every action of the

in

some form or other

Indian's

life,

we must

enter into his hut and inquire into the origin and structure of the various articles

Suppose then we

visit

we

shall see

around

of the Rio Negro, a great tributary of the river

in

Amazon

The main supports of the building

South America.

are trunks of

us.

an Indian cottage on the banks

some

forest tree of

heavy and durable

wood, but the light rafters overhead are formed by the

straight cylindrical

The roof

is

and uniform stems of the Jara palm.

thatched with large triangular leaves, neatly

PALM TREES

10

arranged in regular alternate rows, and bound to the

rafters with

sipos or forest creepers

those of the Carana palm.

framework of thin hard

over;

palm.

it

made

is

The door

strips of

the leaves are

of the house

wood

is

neatly thatched

of the split stems of the Pashiuba

In one corner stands a heavy harpoon for catching

the cow-fish

it

is

Pashiuba barriguda.

formed of the black wood of the

By

twelve feet long, and a

its

side is a blowpipe ten or

little

soned arrows hangs up near

it

quiver full of small poi-

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

palm spathe, and the rude chest

treasures

is

woven from palm

and

his bow-string

in

is

a fibrous

which he keeps his

leaves.

his fishing-line are

His hammock,

from the

fibres

palm

trees,

of leaves which he obtains from different

according to the qualities he requires in them,

hammock from
fishing-line

on

his

head

and

from the Tucum. The comb which he wears

is

ingeniously constructed of the hard bark

of a palm, and he

them

the

the Miriti, and the bow-string

makes

to puncture

fish

hooks of the spines, or uses

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.

gourd contains

oil,

which he has extracted from the

another species

fruit of

11

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 considerable time the action of the poisonous juice.

each of these cases a species

than the rest for the peculiar purpose to which

applied,

and often having

no other plant can serve

may be formed

of

several different uses

how important

daily wants, giving

him

some

as well, so that

Indian must be these noble

it

is

which

little

idea

South American

to the

trees,

his

In

selected better adapted

is

which supply so many

house, his food, and his

weapons.

To the

lover of nature

of interest, reminding

Palms

him

offer a constant source

that he

riant vegetation of the tropics,

realization of whatever wild

and

is

amidst the luxu-

offering to

him the

and beautiful ideas he has

from childhood associated with their name.

In the equatorial regions of South America they are
seldom absent.

Either delicate species flourishing in

the dense shade of the virgin forest

sive,

or lofty

standing erect on the river's banks

side raising their leafy

surrounding

and mas-

or on the hill

crowns on airy stems above the

trees, creating, as

Humboldt

forest above a forest;" in every situation

styles

some

it,

"a

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
elaborate

work already alluded

to.

in

his

PALM TREES

12

Natural Order PALMACE^E.

Genus Leopoldinia, Martins.
This genus

is

by having

characterized

flowers con-

on the

taining stamens or pistils only, intermingled

same

spadix,

The female

The male

and by not having a spathe.

flowers have six stamens

and no rudiments of a stigma.

flowers have three sessile stigmas

The spadix

mentary stamens.

is

and rudi-

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

and cover the stem half-way

to its base.
leaflets

The

petioles,

or sometimes even

leaves are terminal

and pinnate, the

spreading out regularly in one plane.

are often three

or four spadices

abundance of small

flowers,

the outer covering of which

Four

down

species are

on a

tree,

There
bearing

and ovate compressed

fruit,

is fleshy.

known, and they are

all

found in

the same limited district near the Rio Negro, some ex-

tending to the tributaries of the

source,

Orinoco near

its

and one being found south of the Amazon nearly

opposite the

mouth

grow on the banks or

of the Rio Negro.

in the

All however

immediate vicinity of black

water streams, which occur more extensively in South

America than

in

Two

any other part of the globe.

species are described

by Martius, one of which

is

here

figured with two others, which are believed to be new.

They

are not

of the sea.

found more than 1000

feet

above the level

PI IV

JBBBk

Ebri&Westlmp.

LEOPOLDINIA PULCHRA.

Ht .12 Ft

OF THE AMAZON.

PLATE

13

IV.

Leopoldinia ptjlchra, Martins.

Jara, Lingoa Geral.

The

Jara or Jara miri

The stem

feet high.

(little

Jara)

from ten to

is

cylindrical, erect,

is

The

two inches in diameter.

fifteen

and about

leaves are very regularly

pinnate, about four feet long, with the leaflets slightly

The

drooping and the terminal pair small.

are slender

and the sheathing bases are

out from their margins abundance of

cesses

leaf-stalks

persistent, giving
flat

fibrous pro-

which are curiously netted and interlaced together,

down

clothing the stem with a firm covering often

At the lower part

the very base.

and

The

is

rubbed away or

falls

off,

this gradually rots

leaving the stem bare.

and very

flower-stalks or spadices are numerous,

large and

much branched

to

and the

about an

fruits are

inch in diameter, oval and flattened, and of a pale green-

The outer covering

ish-yellow colour.

and has a very

This species

and some of
source,

Orinoco.

is

firm and fleshy,

found on the banks of the Rio Negro

its tributaries,

from

and on the black-water

It

is

bitter taste.

its

mouth up

It

the

never grows far from the water's edge,

though generally out of reach of the floods

season.

to its

of

tributaries

is

not

known

to occur

beyond

in the

wet

this very

limited district.

The stem of

this tree

being very smooth and cylinc

PALM TREES

14

and of a convenient lengthy

drical,

much used

it is

for

fencing round yards and gardens, and in the city of

Barra do Rio Negro

universally employed for such

is

The want

purposes.

of neatness out of doors, which

on the Amazon,

settlers

is

always apparent in these

thought worth while to cut the

fences.

It is never

poles

to one length, but they are set

all

are brought in

from the

forest

two handsome houses in the

filled

is

and Indian

quite a characteristic of the Portuguese

up with a Jara

up

just as they

and the space between

city

may

often be seen

most unpicturesque

railing of

irregularity.

The bright green and

renders

it

glossy foliage of this tree also

suitable for another purpose.

saints' days, little altars

On

certain

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 procession,

The
next

have a very pleasing

effect.

reticulate covering of the

species

offers

a fine

stem of this and the

station for

the

epiphytal

Orchidese 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 species
of the natural size.

Fl.V

LEOPOLDINIA MAJOR.

Ht 25

Ft.

OF THE AMAZON.

PLATE

15

V.

Leopoldinia major,

n. sp.

Jara assu, Lingoa Geral.

Jara assu or " greater Jara" closely resembles the

The

last species,

but

it is

considerably larger.

The stem

is

four inches in diameter and reaches thirty feet in height.

It is often

thicker at the bottom than in the upper

and has a greater proportion of the stem

part,

The

much

bare.

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 lakes 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

being often found with a part of the stem under

level,

water.

The Indians

collect the fruit in large quantities,

by burning and washing

which they use as a substitute for

procure that

article.

and

extract a floury substance,

They

salt

when they cannot

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

Coarse Portugal

among

salt is

the Indians in the upper part of the river serves

as a circulating

medium, about a pound of

reckoned equivalent to a day's work.

ever

is

it.

used in the Rio Negro, and

very uncertain,

it

being

The supply how-

and there are many distant

PALM TREES

16
tribes

them

which

it

scarcely ever reaches

that the substitute

of the Jara.

is

and

it

is

among

manufactured from the

It is doubtful,

however, whether

it

fruit

con-

more

tains

any true

bitter

than saline in taste ; yet with this alone to season

their fish

salt, for

it

is

described as being

and cassava the Indians enjoy almost perfect

health. Perhaps, therefore, mineral salt

a necessary of life as

we

may not be

such

are accustomed to consider

it.

Pl.V]

LEOPOLDINIA PIASSABA.

Hi 20

OF THE AMAZON.

PLATE

17

VI.

Leopoldinia piassaba,
Piassaba, Lingoa Geral.

n. sp.

Chiquichiqui, Barre.

[An

Indian language spoken on the Upper Rio Negro in

Venezuela.]

This

tree, the

"Piassaba" of Brazil and the "Chiqui-

chiqui" of Venezuela, I have

to the

hesitation in referring

little

genus Leopoldinia, though

The

in flower or in fruit.
leaves, the peculiar

have never seen

texture

it

aud form of the

branching of the spadix, and the

extraordinary development of the fibres from the mar-

show it

gins of the sheathing petioles,

allied to the other species of this

The stem

is

to

be very closely

genus.

generally short, but reaches twenty to

and

thirty ieet in height,

is

of the preceding species.

much

thicker than in either

The

leaves are very large

and regularly pinnate, with the pinnae gradually smaller

to the end, as in the

two former

rigid, broadest in the middle,

a fine point, spreading out

rib,

species.

flat

on each

but slightly drooping at the

slender and smooth.

The

leaflets are

and gradually tapering

The spadix

is

side of the mid-

The

tips.

to

petioles are

large, excessively

branched and drooping, and there are often several on

the same tree.

The marginal processes of the

are interlaced as in the

two former

duced into long riband-like

.

split iuto fine fibres,

species,

strips,

petioles

and are pro-

which afterwards

and hang down

five or six feet,

PALM TREES

18

entirely concealing the stem,

and giving the

The

curious and unique appearance.

tree a

most

form an

leaves

and are almost universally used

excellent thatch,

in

that portion of Venezuela situated on the upper Bio

Negro, and the adjacent tributaries of the Orinoco.

The
but

resemble that of the Jara in colour,

fruit is said to
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

tensive article of

grows.

commerce

navigating the Amazon.

purpose, as

it is

It

is

it

light (the cables

and very durable.

very abundant, and

for the canoes

well adapted for this

made

of

it

not sinking

It twists readily

into cordage from the fibres being

it is

an ex-

which

It seems to have been used by the Brazilians

from a very early period to form cables

in water)

is

in the countries in

is

and firmly

rough -edged, and as

procured and manufactured

by the Indians, piassaba ropes are much cheaper than

The

any other kind of cordage.

Barra in June 1852, was 400
the

fibre,

and 800

price in the city of

reis or Is. for

inch in circum-

reis or 2s. for every

ference of a cable sixty fathoms long,

standard length they are

all

made

32 lbs. of

which

is

the

to.

Before the independence of Brazil, the Portuguese

government had a factory

at the

mouth

of the Paduari,

one of the tributaries of the Bio Negro, for the purpose

of

making these

and

as a

cables for the use of the Para arsenal,

government monopoly.

years the fibre was

all

Till

within these few

manufactured into cordage on

OF THE AMAZON.
the spot, but

it is

now taken down

dles for exportation

19

in long conical

bun-

from Para to England, where

it is

generally used for street sweeping and house brooms,

and

probably soon be applied to

will

many other purwomen and

cut with knives by men,

poses.

It

children,

from the upper part of the younger

is

as to secure the freshest fibres, the taller trees

trees, so

which have

only the old and half-rotten portion within reach, being

left

untouched.

It is said to

years, the fibres being

leaves.

The

trees are

grow again

produced

in five or six

at the bases of the

much infested by venomous

new

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

grows in swampy or
banks of black-water

is

partially flooded lands

rivers.

It is first

river Padauari, a tributary of the

northern

side,

very peculiar.

It

on the

found on the

Rio Negro on

its

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

banks of the Rio Negro

The next

river,

itself

it

ceases.

not a tree

is

On

the

to be seen.

the Daraha, also contains some.

The

next two, the Maraviha and Cababuris, are white-water

On the S. bank, though
rivers, and have no Piassaba.

no Piassaba

all

the rivers are black water, there

we

reach the Marie, not far below St. Gabriel.

is

extensively cut for

is still

is

till

Here

it

about a hundred miles up, but there

none immediately

at the

mouth

or on the banks

PALM TREES

20

rivers, the Curicuriari, the

The next

of the Rio Negro.

great river Uaupes, and the Isanna, though

water, have none

On

appears.

entering Venezuela

banks of the Rio Negro, and

and

sources,

in the

of the

tributaries

is

is

it

again

all

up

to its

Temi and Atabapo, black-water

seems to be

This

Orinoco.

ing in any part of the

It is

it

found near the

abundant

northern limit, and I cannot hear of

tributaries.

black-

all

while further on, in the Xie,

Amazon

its

again appear-

its

or Orinoco or their

thus entirely restricted to a

district

about 300 miles from N. to S. and an equal distance

from E. to

W.

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

almost as well acquainted with

we

the forest, and

its

are with the well-beaten roads of our

The

fibre

who

are

trackless depths as

own

island.

imported into this country has been sup-

posed to be produced only by the Attalea funifera, a

not found in

species

London Journal

the

Amazon

district.

of Botany for 1849, Sir

In the

W. Hooker

gave some account of the material, and of the tree pro-

ducing

it

stating that he

tree with the fibre

had received the

fruit of the

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.
in

Southern Brazil,

" piacaba "

distinct trees
localities

and he

so that the Indian

21
that

states

name

is

it

is

called

applied to two

producing a similar material in different

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

of the Piassaba

now

tree.

The greater

part, if not all

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

her cargo.

England without

its

forming a part of

PALM TREES

22

Genus Euterpe, Gartner.

flowers intermingled on the

Male and female

spadix, the former

more abundant

in the

membranaceous, fusiform and deciduous.

bracts,

male with

entire,

Flowers with

stamens and a rudimentary

six

female with three

upper part of
Spathe

the branches, the latter in the lower.

sessile

stigmas.

same

Spadix

pistil,

simply

branched, spreading horizontally.

These are very elegant palms

slender,

smooth and

terminal, pinnate, regular,

plume.

The bases

their stems are lofty,

faintly ringed.

The

are

leaves

and form a graceful feathery

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, spring from

beneath the leaves, and the spathes are very deciduous,

falling to the
is

ground

as soon as they open.

small, globose, at first

and

The

fruit

green, then violet or black,

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

three species in the

have figured.

Some

Amazon
prefer

level of the sea, others

height of

4000

feet-

district,

to

be

two of which

marshy grounds near the

extend up the mountains to a

PI VII.

EDcdSLWest Lap.

EUTERPE OLERACEA

Hi 60

Ft.

OF THE AMAZON.

PLATE

23

VII.

Euterpe oleracea, Martins.

Assai, Lingoa Geral.

The

Assai of Para

is

The stem

is

a tall and slender tree, from sixty

and about four inches in diameter.

to eighty feet high,

very smooth, of a pale colour, and generally

waving, sometimes very

of moderate
pinnate,

size,

much

and with the

curved.

The

leaves are

pale bright green, regularly

of a

leaflets

much

The

of an olive colour.

The

drooping.

column formed by the sheathing bases of the

leaves

flowers are small, whitish,

very thickly set on the simply branched spadix.

two or

are generally
six

and sometimes even

three,

below the leaf-column. The spathe

branous, and

falls off as

when

about the

ripe

is

consists of a
exterior,

There
five or

growing out horizontally from a

spadices,

is

little

smooth and mem-

the spadix opens.

and colour of a

size

is

and

The
sloe.

fruit

It

hard albuminous seed, with a rather fibrous

and a very thin covering of a firm pulp or

flesh.

This species
of Para,

flooded

is

very abundant in the neighbourhood

and even in the

by the high

city itself. It

tides,

straight cylindrical stem

and

rafters;

but the tree

valuable to be cut
favourite drink

is

never

is

grows in swamps

on dry land.

Its

sometimes used for poles

is

generally considered too

down for such purposes. A very

made from the ripe fruit, and daily

PALM TREES

24
vended in the

may be

Indian and negro girls

streets of Para.

constantly seen walking about with small earthen

pots on their heads, uttering at intervals a shrill cry of

Assai

If

i.

she will set

you

down her

call

one of these dusky maidens,

pot,

and you

a thick creamy liquid, of a fine

worth of
a

little

this will

fill

will see it filled

plum

a tumbler, and

colour.

with

penny-

you may then add

sugar to your taste, and will find a peculiar nut-

flavoured liquid, which you

may

great deal of at

you repeat your experience

a few times,

first

you

but,

if

will inevitably

not perhaps think a

become

so fond of

as

it

to consider " Assai" one of the greatest luxuries the

place produces.

taken with farinha, the

It is generally

substitute for bread prepared from the mandiocca root,

and with or without sugar, according

to the taste of

the consumer.

During our walks

Para we had

in the suburbs of

frequently opportunities of seeing the preparation of

this favourite beverage.

Two

or three large bunches

The women

of fruit are brought in from the forest.

the house seize

upon them, shake and

strip

them

of

into

and pour on them warm water,

a large earthen vessel,

not too hot to bear the hand

The water soon

in.

becomes tinged with purple, and in about an hour the

outer pulp has become soft enough to rub

water

is

now most

of

it

and a damsel, with no

hands into the

vessel,

poured away, a

little

off.

The

cold added,

sleeves to turn up, plunges both

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

25

OF THE AMAZON.

and the greenish stones

left

The

bare.

liquid

poured through a wicker sieve into another

is

then ready for use.

The smiling

now

is

vessel,

and

hostess will then

a calabash, and give you another with farinha to

fill

mix

to your taste

and nothing

will delight her

more

than your emptying your rustic basin and asking her

to

refill it.

The inhabitants
without

of Para are excessively attached to

and many never pass a day of

this beverage,

They

it.

being able to get

are

at all seasons, for

it

places the trees only bear for a few

year, yet in the

variety of soil

and
is

in

months once
is

so

in the

much

aspect, that within a day or two's

always some ripe Assai to supply the

Boys climb up the

market.

too,

though in most

neighbourhood of Para there

journey, there

their lives

particularly favoured

trees to get

it,

with a cord

round the ankles (as shown on the Plate), and with

its

make a neatly interlaced basket to carry it

From the great island of Marajo, its igaripes *
and marshes, from the rivers Guama and Moju, from

own

leaves

home.

the thousand islands in the river, and from the vast

palm swamps
fruit are

in the depths of the forest, baskets of the

brought every morning to the

city,

where half

the population look to the Assai to supply a daily meal,

and hundreds are said

their

to

make

it,

with farinha, almost

main subsistence.

The

trees of this

genus

also furnish another article

The undeveloped leaves in the centre of the

column form a white sweetish mass, which when boiled

of food.

small stream, literally " path of the canoe."

PALM TREES

26

somewhat resembles artichoke or parsnep, and

good and wholesome vegetable.

may

It

raw, cut up and dressed as a salad with

As, however, to obtain

it is

much used
who have no

not

forest

it

Indies

is

an

oil

is

a very

be eaten

and vinegar.

the tree must be destroyed,

by

in Para, except

travellers in the

particular interest in the preserva-

The Cabbage Palm

tion of the trees for fruit.

West

also

allied species,

and

is

of the

used for food in

the same manner.

Very

specimens of this tree

fine

Palm House

great

at

may be

seen in the

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

on the same

they are often found, together

tree.

Euterpe

On

the banks of the Rio

Negro there appears

genus,

another species of this

Euterpe oleracea, but the stem

is

to be

closely allied to the

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

inundations.

winter's

examine into
to

so

Para

was

there

is

unfortunately neglected to

peculiar characters, as until

had considered

common
I

its

it

my

return

identical with the species

there.

also

informed that in the island of Marajo

a species or variety having white

had no opportunity of examining

it.

fruit,

but

PI VIII

OF THE AMAZON.

PLATE

27

VIII.

Euterpe catinga,

n. sp.

Assai de catinga, Lingoa Geral.

This
and

from the

species differs
less

The

forty or fifty feet high.

much

last in its slenderer

drooping leaves and

The

smaller.

spadices are fewer and

d' Assai

quantity of fruit

and has more

fruit also is smaller,

pulpy matter, so that a small quantity of

of the " vinho

it

makes more

" (the Assai wine) than the same

of the

The column

larger kind.

formed by the sheathing bases of the leaves

than in the

The

stem

grows to

It

leaflets.

last species,

is

smaller

and always of a red colour.

roots rise considerably above the ground, forming

not the case in the E. oleracea.

a distinct cone, which

is

It inhabits the forests

on a dry

Rio Negro.

by the

These

natives,

ductions,

sarjdy soil, of the

districts are called

Upper

Catinga forests

and have very peculiar vegetable pro-

differing

almost entirely from those of the

lofty virgin forest.

The preparation
and more
is

of the fruit of this species

finely flavoured

therefore

much sought

after,

of four or five trees to yield as

but

month

sweeter

it

takes the produce

much

as a single spadix

of the larger kind will often produce.

fruit ripe in the

is

than that of any other, and

found the

of April on the river Uaupes, a

branch of the Rio Negro above the

Falls.

d 2

PALM TREES

28

Genus (Enocakptjs, Martins.

Male and female

flowers

former most abundant.

on the same spadix, the

Spathe double, the interior

woody, and deciduous.

complete,

distinct bracts; the

ments of a

pistil,

male with

six

Flowers without

stamens and rudi-

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
a sheathing

and clasping the stem, but not forming

column

as in the last genus.

The

spadices

spring from beneath the leaves and are simply branched;

the branches are very lax, hanging

when

except

The spathe

is

forced outwards

the

is

small,

vertically
fruit.

very large, fusiform and woody, and

moment

off

down

by the ripening

the spadix escapes from

it.

The

nearly globular, and has an edible

falls

fruit

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

the sea.

feet

above

BACCABA

Ht

SO

Ft-

OF THE AMAZON.

PLATE

29

IX.

CEnocarptjs baccaba, Martins,

Baccaba, Lingoa Geral.

This

is

smooth thick-stemmed handsome

and reaching

ringed,

leaves are large, terminal,

are long

tree, faintly

The

or sixty feet in height.

fifty

and pinnate.

The

leaflets

gradually pointed, and set at equal distances

When

along the midrib.

young, the leaves are

but in the full-grown tree the

two or three standing out

general plane of the

leaf,

mixed appearance to the

dilated at the base

the

flat,

standing out in the same plane;

leaflets or pinnae all

leaflets are in

groups of

at different angles

so as to give

leaf.

The

from the

an irregular

petioles are greatly

where they clasp the stem, and

The

have a fibrous margin.

leaves as they die fall

clean off from the stem, no part of the base remaining.

The spathe

ripe,

is

The

visible.

deciduous, being comparatively seldom

fruits are of a violet or black colour

are prepared in the

pulp

when

but are covered with a dense whitish bloom. They

is

same way

as the Assai, but the

of a pinkish cream-colour instead of purple,

the liquid

is

more

what resembling
ever, not
districts

oily,

and of

filberts

and cream.

wholesome

and

some-

delicious flavour,
It is said,

how-

and

in

where intermittent fevers are prevalent,

to

to be so

as the Assai,

bring them on, and to be particularly hurtful to persons

recovering from that disease.

very beautiful

oil is

PALM TREES

30

sometimes extracted from the pulp by pressure

perfectly clear, liquid,

a substitute for olive

lamps.

The

when none

is

it

and inodorous; and serves

as

good

for

oil,

as well as being very

leaves are sometimes used for thatching

better can be obtained

but owing to the

irregularity of the pinnae before mentioned, they are

not

much

used.

This species inhabits the dry virgin forests of the

Rio Negro and Upper Amazon.

that river

In the lower parts of

and in the neighbourhood of Para

it

is

replaced by another species, the (Enocarpus distichus.

The

GE. baccdba is

One

figure

growing

at

Kew.

on the Plate shows the unopened spathe

the other has spadices with flowers and

fruit.

ARPUS BATAWA.

Ht.50Pt.

OF THE AMAZON.

PLATES

31

X. and XI.

(Enocarptjs batawa, Martins.

Patawa, Lingoa Geral.

This

can hardly be distinguished from the

species

(Enocarpus baccdba when young.

In the full-grown

plant, however, the leaves preserve their regularity, the

leaflets

spreading out regularly in one plane and having

The stem

a very beautiful appearance.

fifty

in old trees is

or sixty feet high and quite smooth, but in those

growing in the shade of the

trees, the

stem

is

and

forest,

in all

young

completely hidden by the persistent

bases of the decayed and fallen leaves.

have figured

a tree in this state (Plate XI.).

The sheathing bases

their

of the petioles give out from

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-

much
sought after by the Indians, who use them to make
One of
arrows for their "gravatanas" or blow-pipes.

rally broken or fibrous at the point.

these arrows

is

They

are

here represented with the wicker quiver

in which they are carried.

They

are about fifteen or

eighteen inches long, sharply pointed at the end, which

is

covered with " curari" poison for three or four inches

down, and notched so as to break

Near the bottom a

cotton-tree

is

little

of the soft

off in

down

the wound.
of the silk-

twisted round into a smooth

spindle-

32

PALM TREES

shaped mass, and carefully secured with a

" bromelia."

The cotton

offering a light

just

resisting

fits easily

body

fibre of a

into the tube,

for the breath to act

upon.

The

fruit of this species is very similar to that of the

Baccaba, and

is

The Patawa

said to
is

be of even superior flavour.

found in the whole of the Amazon

and Rio Negro in the virgin

Palm House

The

though apparently

Specimens are now growing

nowhere very abundant.

in the

forest,

Kew.

at

fruit is represented

on PL X. of the natural

size.

(Enocarpus minor, Martins.

Baccaba miri, Lingoa Geral.

This

a small species

is

Negro.

The stem

QL. baccaba,

is

and the

flavoured,

and ripens
It

the upper Rio

not half so thick as in the

leaves are in proportion.

fruit is also very small,

the larger kind.

common on

but

is

at a different

time of year from

grows in the dry virgin

drawing of this tree was unfortunately

voyage home.

The

very fleshy and fine-

forest.

My

on

my

lost

CHNOCARPl"

\WA

Hr.

6C

33

OF THE AMAZON.

CEnocakpus distichus, Martim.

Baccaba, of Para.

This

is

known

the species

where the (E. baccaba

from the

is

allied species

as the

not found.

Baccaba

at

Para,

It is quite distinct

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,

suffering so

much from

was

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 Ibiartea, Ruiz

Pavon.

et

Female flowers few, interspersed among the males,

flowers

with from

rudiments

of

Male

membranous, incomplete.

Spathe

bracteate.

twelve

to

stamens and the

fifty

Female flowers with three

pistil.

sessile stigmas.

and beautiful Palms

These singular

have

lofty,

smooth, cylindrical or ventricose stems, very faintly

The

ringed.

roots

grow more or

above ground.

less

The

leaves are terminal

are

somewhat triangular, notched, often twisted or

curled,

and pinnate, and the

leaflets

The sheathing

and have radiating nerves.

The

bases form a column as in

Euterpe.

grow from beneath the

and are simply branched

leaves

The spathes vary

and drooping.

they are membranous,

The

ripens.

fruit is

and

fall

oval, of

in

spadices

number and

moderate

generally

size,

of a red or yellow colour, and the pulpy part

and uneatable.
thickness

within

The stems
certain

other palms, which,

size

before the fruit

off

is

bitter

of this genus increase in

limits,

differing

when the stem

is

from most

once formed,

only increase in height.

Nine

species of this

South America.
district,

genus are known,

Four of them occur

all

natives of

in the

Amazon

three in Bolivia, one in Venezuela, and one

near Bogota, reaching a height above the sea of 5000

to

8000

feet.

PI. XII.

Tui-i&'West jb$>

IRIARTEA EXORHIZA.

Ht.60Ft.

OF THE AMAZON.

PLATE

35

XII.

Iriartea exorhiza, Martins.

Pashiuba, Lingoa Geral,

This curious and

beautiful

tree

is

common

in the

Para and on the banks of the Amazon.

forests about

It reaches fifty or sixty feet in height,

with the stem

moderately thick and very smooth, there being scarcely

any rings or

The

scars left

by the

triangular

fallen leaves.

and pinnate, with the

leaves are large

The

different angles with the midrib.

gracefully,
is

leaflets

and very deeply notched, standing out

and the character and aspect of the

foliage

very different from that of most other palms.

column formed by the sheathing

at

leaves curve over

The

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

renders

it

and only eaten by some

bitter

But what most

strikes attention

so peculiar,

is,

that the roots

each one at a higher point than the

diagonally downwards
often

which secures

and

are almost

They spring out from the stem,

entirely above ground.

when they

birds.

in this tree,

till

divide

into

the

itself in

last,

and extend

they approach the ground,

many

soil.

As

rootlets,

each of

fresh ones spring

out from the stem, those below become rotten and die
off;

and

it is

not an

uncommon

tree supported entirely

person

may walk

thing to see a lofty

by three or four

roots, so that a

erect beneath them, or stand with a

PALM TREES

36
tree seventy feet

high growing immediately over his

head.

In the

young

where these trees grow, numbers of

forests

plants of every age

may be

seen, all miniature

copies of their parents, except that they seldom possess

more than three

which gives them a strange and

legs,

almost ludicrous appearance.

The

figure

on the opposite page (Plate XIII.) repre-

sents accurately the roots of a tree

blown down

partly

My

Negro.

in

which had been

the forest of the Upper Rio

Mr. Spruce informs me that

friend

it is

a distinct species from that found at Para, though

closely allied to

it,

and scarcely

differing in the cha-

racter of the roots.

The wood
but

of these trees

is

and pithy within.

soft

straight,

and

is

much used

very hard on the outside,

It splits easily

and very

forming the

floors of

for

canoes, the ceilings of houses, shelves, seats,

purposes.

other
readily

Perfectly

made from

it

straight

and various

laths

they are so hard and durable as to serve for

corals for turtles,

and

are

more

than from any other wood, and

for harpoons.

The

fish- weirs,

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
at

plants

may be

seen in the great Palrn House

Kew.

fruit is

natural

size.

represented on Plate III.

fig. 5.

of the

PI XIV

IRIARTEA VENTRICOSA

Ht 20 Ft

OF THE AMAZON.

67

PLATE XIV.
IHIARTEA VEKTRICOSA, MaHklS.
Pashiuba barriguda, Brazil.

This

The

the most majestic tree of the genus.

is

stem reaches eighty or a hundred

and

feet in height,

besides being rather thicker in proportion than in the

last species, offers a

stantly

more or

remarkable character in being con-

less swollen

The trunk

the top.

is

near the middle or towards

generally cylindrical to a height

of forty or fifty feet, where

it

swells out to double its

former diameter or more for ten or

when

it

fifteen feet further,

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

from top to bottom, while others present

cylindrical

every degree of swelling from a just perceptible thick-

ening to a most extraordinary enlargement.

column of

The

air-roots in this species is six or eight feet

high, forming a compact conical mass, the separate

roots being

The

more slender than

in the Iriartea exorhiza.

leaves are very large, with the leaflets broadly

triangular and

much

cut and waved, forming a very

elegant and yet massive head of foliage.

column

is

very thick,

much

The

leaf-

swollen at the base, and of

a deep bluish green colour.

The unopened spathes

are lunate in shape

and curved

PALM TREES

38

downwards, and the spadices are small and simply

branched.

The wood
and

is

of this tree

is

very hard, heavy and black,

used by the Indians for making harpoons and

spears with which they hunt the cow-fish.

part of the stem

is

The swollen

sometimes cut down and made into

when one is required in a hurry ; otherwise it

not made use of.
The tree grows on the Upper Amazon and Rio Negro,

a canoe,
is

on

hill sides

and on the banks of brooks and springs

and the Indians say that wherever

rilha will

A
size.

it

abounds salsapa-

be found growing near.

fruit is represented

on the Plate of the natural

PI

XV

TRTARTEA SETIGERA.

Ht. 20 Ft.

OF THE AMAZON.

39

PLATE XV.
Iriartea setigera, Martins.
Pashiuba miri, Lingoa Geral.

This small
feet high,

species has the

stem from

fifteen to

twenty

and varying from the thickness of a finger

to that of the wrist,

which

it

never exceeds.

The stem

but distinctly ringed.

The

roots appear only a few inches above the ground.

The

leaves are pinnate, the leaflets elongate, triangular

and

is

smooth and

cylindrical,

The column

cut at the ends.

and both
or down.

it

and the

The

is

short and cylindrical,

petioles are covered with short hairs

spadices have long stalks and

beneath or from among the leaves

and are simply branched.

large

grow from

they are rather

The spathes form

sheaths at the base's of the spadices, and are persistent.

The
size

an orange-red colour, and about the

"
"
hip
of the
or wild rose fruit.
fruit is oval, of

These trees grow on the Upper Amazon and Rio

Negro

in the dry virgin forest,

where they occur

in

small scattered groves.

This species
the

Rio

is

Negro.

of great importance to the Indian of

With

its

stem he constructs his

"gravatana" or blowing tube, which, with the

arrows before described as

made from

little

the spines of the

Patawa, forms a most valuable weapon, enabling him

to bring

down monkeys,

parrots

and curassow birds

e 2

PALM TREES

40

from their favourite stations on the summits of the

loftiest trees of the forest.

he wishes to make a " gravatana n he searches

When

till he finds two straight and tall stems of

"
Pashiuba miri M of such proportionate thicknesses
the

in the forest

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

and

elastic

with

it

wood

little

bunch of the

and polishes the

inside

inserts

placing

it

the

so that

the bore becomes as

he binds

it

Should

be not quite correct,

it still

He

and dry.

to the smaller

then

work

fits

till it is

per-

a mouth-piece of

end of the tube, so that the arrow

out freely at the other

finish his

then care-

tube within the larger,

slenderer

carefully to a post in his house

fectly straight

may go

He

any curve in the one may counteract

that in the other.

wood

and

roots of a tree fern,

till

hard and as smooth as polished ebony.

fully

of the hard

pushes out the pith from both the stems, and

then with a
cleans

made

of the " Pashiuba barriguda,"

neatly,

winds

and when he wishes

round

spirally

it

to

from end

Near the lower

to end, the shining bark of a creeper.

extremity he forms a sight with the large curved cutting

tooth of the Paca (Ccelogenus paca), which he fixes on

with pitch, and the gravatana

These tubes are never

less

is

then

fit

for use.

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.

enough

The bore

is

generally not large

to admit the tip of the little finger, so that the

41

OF THE AMAZON.
breath more readily

fills

the whole tube and propels the

The

arrow with great velocity.

vertical

direction

is

that in which the surest aim can be taken, and for

which the gravatana

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

his station beneath

lungs, will send

erring aim.

it,

skilful

Indian will take

and with a puff from

his powerful

his little poisoned arrows with un-

up

The w ounded
T

birds sometimes turn giddy

and drop in a few seconds, or

ing tree and in a minute

fall

fly

away

to a neighbour-

heavily to the ground, or

try to pluck out the arrows with their beaks, which,

however, invariably break in the wound.

carefully

marks the

and when

direction in

his quiver is

which each one

falls,

emptied of arrows or the tree

of birds, walks round and gathers

weapon makes no

The hunter

noise,

up the game.

His

and he therefore often does

more execution than the best European sportsman

armed with

On

Plate

fig. 2. is

his double-barrel

XV.

fig. 1. is

Manton.

a fruit of the natural size;

the gravatana or Indian blowpipe.

PALM TREES

42

Genus Haphia, Commerson.

Male and female
T^o

spadix.

sheaths.

common

Male

flowers intermixed on

spathe, but

many

the same

small incomplete

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

are very large, regular

and ringed.

and pinnate

The

the leaflets are

and have spinulose midribs and edges.

linear

leaves

The

bases of the petioles are sheathing, and persistent some

way down the stem, and the margins

spadices
large

grow from among the

and much branched

are fibrous.

leaves,

and the

The

and are very

fruit is

oblong and

covered with large imbricated scales.

There are three species of the genus known

a native of the west coast of Africa, another of

gascar,

while a third

Lower Amazon.

is

one

is

Mada-

found on the banks of the

R.APH1A

T/hDMBRA

Mi

60 P

43

OF THE AMAZON.

PLATE XVI.
Eaphia t.edigera, Martins.
Jupati, Lingoa GeraL

This

one of the most striking of the

is

many

noble

Palms which grow on the rich alluvium of the Amazon.

Its comparatively short

ciate the

enormous

stem enables us fully to appre-

size of its leaves,

same time equally remarkable

They

rise nearly vertically

which are

at the

for their elegant form.

from the stem and bend out

on every side in graceful curves, forming a magnificent

plume seventy

feet in height

and

forty in diameter.

have cut down and measured leaves forty-eight and

fifty feet

leaflets

They

long, but could never get at the largest.

rather

are

closely

The

spread out four feet on each side of the midrib.

set

irregularly

scattered

and not very

they droop at the tips and have weak

spinules along the margins.

The stem does not

in height

and

is

generally exceed six or eight feet

about a foot in diameter, clothed for

some distance down with the persistent sheathing bases

and the numerous spinous processes

of the leaf-stalks

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

PALM TREES

44

crowded, and the fruit

is large,

oblong, and reticulated

with large scales.

The

petiole or leaf-stalk of this tree is

first leaflets,

and four or

five

inches in dia-

When

meter, perfectly straight and cylindrical.

it

long

It is often twelve or fifteen feet

sively useful.

below the

most exten-

dried,

almost equals the quill of a bird for strength and

lightness,

owing

to its thin

But

soft internal pith.

for

him

to use

rind

glossy

baskets and

it

it is

entire.

perfectly

in

window

blinds.

hard outer covering and

too valuable to the Indian

He

strips

purposes.

the
this

of a

up

into

shutters,

boxes, bird-cages, par-

entire houses are constructed of

little village

kind

is split

is

an inch thick and serves for a variety of

Window

and even

titions

and makes

The remaining part

consistence between pith and wood, and

laths about half

smooth

off the

splits

straight

may be

of Nazare near Para,

seen in which

material, supported

all

In

it.

many houses

of

the walls are of this

by a few posts

at the angles

and

fastened together with pegs and slender creepers (sipos)

The hand may be

walls,

easily

pushed through one of these

but as the inhabitants do not trouble themselves

with the possession of any article worth stealing, they

sleep as composedly as if stone walls

them

in with all the security of a

and iron

bolts shut

more advanced

civili-

zation.

The same
bottles,

used for stoppers for

material

is

also

and we found

it

answer admirably for lining

our insect boxes, holding the pins securely and being

more uniform

in its texture than cork.

OF THE AMAZON.
This
it

is

the only American species of the genus, and

inhabits

exclusively the tide-flooded lands

Lower Amazon and Para

the interior.

When

of the

being quite unknown in

rivers,

descending from the Rio Negro to

Para in the summer of 1852,

Indians

45

who had made

some of our

the voyage before, pointing out

this tree to their less travelled

curiosities of the lower

I observed

companions as one of the

country not to be found in the

" Sertao."
It is probable that the leaf,

largest in the whole vegetable

though not

covering a surface of more than

few years we

may be

Palm House

at

entire, is the

kingdom, some of them

able to see

200 square

them

feet.

In a

in the magnificent

Kew, where young plants

are

now grow-

ing.

Plate II.

natural

size.

fig.

1,

a fruit of Raphia tcecligera of the

46

PALM TREES

Genus Mauritia, Linnaeus.

Male
flowers
like,

flowers

tubular

six imperfect

The stems

female or hermaphrodite

tree,

The spathes

sheaths.

The female

stamens.

and

on one

on another.

are imperfect, bract -

The male

flowers

flowers have a three-lobed stigma

are either

columnar and smooth, or

tall,

conical spines.

leaves are all fan- shaped or radiating

The spadix

is

six

stamens.

more slender and armed with strong

The

have

from a centre.

very large and pinnately branched, and

grows from among the

leaves.

derate size, oval or globular,

The

fruits are of

mo-

and covered with rather

small imbricated scales pointing downwards.

Four species are described by Martius, three of which

occur in the

with by

Amazon

me on

district,

and four more were met

the Rio Negro, so that the genus seems

confined to the hottest parts of the American Continent

from the
feet.

level of the sea to

an altitude of about 3000

PI .XVII.

MAURI T I A

F L EXUO S A Ht
.

100 Ft

OF THE AMAZON.

PLATE XVII.
Mauritia

flexttosa, Linnceus.
Lingoa Geral.

Miriti,

Murichi, in Venezuela.
Ita

This

Mouth of the

Orinoco.

one of the most noble and majestic of the

is

American Palms.

It

grows to a height of eighty or

a hundred feet.

The stem

about

circumference, often perfectly cylin-

drical,

five feet in

but sometimes

is

straight

towards the top, so that the bottom

The

is

They

middle or

the thinnest part.

leaves spread out in every direction

of the stem.
leaflets

the

near

swollen

and smooth,

from the top

and fan-shaped, the

are very large

spreading out rigidly on

and only

sides

all

drooping at the tips and at the midrib or elongation of

the petiole.

The

leaves stand

very straight and thick, and

which clasps the stem.

tree

is

a grand sight.

a foot in diameter

on long

much

An

which are

swollen at the base

full-grown fallen leaf of this

The expanded sheathing base

the petiole

is

a solid

twelve feet long, and the leaf itself

diameter.

stalks

is

entire leaf is a load for a

beam ten

is

or

nine or ten in

man.

The spadices grow out from among the leaves ; they

are very large, pinnately branched

drooping.

The

and horizontal or

fruit is spherical, the size of a small

PALM TREES

48

apple and covered with rather small, smooth, brown,

reticulated scales, beneath which

pulp.
often

a thin coating of

is
is

of

immense weight,

more than two men could carry between them.

The
to

spadix loaded with fruit

leaves, fruit

and stem of

of the

the natives

this tree are all useful

The

interior.

are

leaf-stalks

applied to the same purposes as those of the species last

The epidermis

described, the Jupati.

of the leaves

furnishes the material of which the string for

and cordage
unopened

for a variety of purposes

cut down, and

hammocks,

made.

The

form a thick-pointed column rising

leaves

from the very centre of the crown of

fall apart.

is

by a

shaking the tender

little

Each one

is

This

foliage.

is

leaflets

then skilfully stripped of

its

a thin riband-like pellicle of a pale

outer covering,

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.

article

most commonly made from

netted

hammock, which

the native tribes of the

is

it is

the almost universal bed of

Amazon.

These are formed by

doubling the string over two rods or poles about

seven feet apart,

till

The

the " rede," or

there are forty or

fifty

six or

parallel

threads, which are then secured at intervals of about a

foot

by cross

tudinal one.

strings twisted

A strong

loop formed by

all

end, by which the

cord

and
is

tied

on

to every longi-

then passed through the

the strings brought together at each

hammock

is

hung up

a few feet from

the ground, and in this open net the naked Indian

OF THE AMAZON.

49

we do

sleeps beside his fire as comfortably as

in our

beds of down.

Other

com-

twist the strings together in a

tribes

manner

plicated

hammock

so that the

is

more

elastic,

and the Brazilians have introduced a variety of improvements by using a kind of knitting needles producing a
closer web, or

by

wooden frame with

a large

rollers,

on

which they weave in a rude manner with a woof and

They

weft as in a regular loom.

many

also

dye the string of

which they work in symmetrical

patterns, making the redes or " maqueiras " as they are
brilliant colours

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

They

duced.

are soaked in water

pro-

is

they begin to

till

ferment, and the scales and pulpy matter soften and can

be easily rubbed
a sieve

it is

When

off in water.

strained through

ready for use, and has a slight acid taste

and a peculiar

flavour

of

the fruit

at

rather

first

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

water between

mud

generally

left

at

low

"terra firma" and the water's edge.

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 Brazilian country house, should

water,

you

will

a visit to

you

many

arrive at low

have no other means of getting ashore.

F

PALM TREES

50

The

Miriti

is

a social palm, covering large tracts of

on the Lower Amazon.

tide-flooded lands

places there

is

no underwood

In these

to break the view

among

interminable ranges of huge columnar stems rising undisturbed by branch or leaf to the height of eighty or a

hundred

feet,

yield in grandeur

vast natural temple which does not

and sublimity

to those of

Palmyra or

Athens.

Of

the age of these noble trees

ledge, but
size,

it is

we have no know-

remarkable how uniform they appear in

there often being not a single

young

tree over

a considerable extent of ground, particularly in places

now

flooded daily

by the

One would

tide.

therefore

imagine that the present trees sprung up when the

ground was more elevated than

at present,

and that

has since gradually sunk (or the waters risen)

conditions have

young

plants,

become unfavourable

for the

till

it

the

growth of

though not hurtful to those which had

Whether such is the

phenomenon can only be

already attained a certain age.

true

explanation

of

the

decided by continued observation on the spot.

Besides this species which

as

occurring

at

Para,

my

mentioned by Martius

is

friend

Mr. Spruce

tained that another closely allied palm, the

On

ascer-

Mauritia

Amazon and
Rio Negro a palm is found supposed to be the M.
flexuosa, but it is not so lofty a tree, which may pervinifera, also occurs there.

haps be accounted for by

its

the Upper

growing on annually

stead of diurnally flooded lands.

It is believed to

in-

be

the same species which Humboldt observed on the

OF THE AMAZON.

The

Serra Duida.

the Orinoco

On
I

is

Ita

also

51

palm growing on the

thought to be the same

the river Uaupes, a branch of the

delta of
species.

Upper Rio Negro,

observed an allied species called by the natives " Ca-

The stem was smooth and much more

rana assu."

slender and waving, and the leaves

much

smaller.

Plants of the Mauritia flexuosa are growing in the

Palm House

On

Plate

at

Kew.

XVII.

a single leaf

the flabellate form

is

represented, showing

produced by abbreviation of the

midrib.
Plate II.

fig. 2. is

a fruit of the natural size.

f2

Fl.XVIII.

MAURITIA CARANA

Ht 40

Ft.

53

PLATE

XVIII.

Mauritia C ARAN a,

n. sp.

Carana, Lingoa Geral.

This

smooth-stemmed

a large

is

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,

The

smooth and obscurely ringed.

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,

much more drooping

very large,

straight

at

the tips.

and

cylindrical

The

the stem, and their margins

fibres

which clothe

though rather

The

dilated

distance

down

give out a quantity of

as in the Leopoldinia piassaba,

less densely.

spadices

grow from among the

somewhat more
and the

Miriti,

it

their

bases are persistent for a considerable

and

petioles are

erect

leaves

and

are

and much smaller than in 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 described,

as those

this is abundant.
ever,

is

the

leaf,

palms are generally absent where

The

part most generally used, how-

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

PALM TREES

54

roof well-thatched with

Carana

will last eight or teu years without renewing,

and the

durable texture.

leaves are so constantly cut for this purpose that

it is

hardly possible to find an entire and handsome tree.

Though
is

so closely resembling the Miriti, the epidermis

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 Carana " did not produce 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.

I observed

but

still

it

preserving

It is called

stemmed

At

Javita

growing within a few yards of the Miriti,

all its

distinctive characters.

by the natives Carana, the smaller prickly

species being

known by

the

name

of Caranai.

PI XIX

MAURITIA ACULEATA.

Ht 45

Ft

OF THE AMAZON.

55

PLATE XIX.
Mauritia aculeata, Humboldt.
Caranai, Lingoa Geral (Rio Negro).

Carana? (Para).

This

species has a

about forty or

numerous, long,

The

rings.
rigid

at the base for

conical,

woody

are long

arranged in

away from the stem.

leaflets are

spadices are small and

and rather

This species

and united

The

and slender and are deciduous, the

to be partly concealed

oval

and armed with

spines

about one-eighth of their length.

and edges of the

is

and slender stem reaching

in height

slightly drooping at the tips,

entire leaf falling

The

erect

feet

leaves are rather small with the leaflets

and very

petioles

tall,

fifty

The midrib

armed with weak

grow somewhat

among

spinules.

erect so as

the leaves, and the fruit

small.

grows on the Upper Rio Negro and

Atabapo, in marshes, with a rocky subsoil, and in the

moist parts of the Catinga forest.

mon
Para,

in the
is

swamps

The Carana, com-

(not in the tide-flooded lands) about

very closely allied or

may be

the same species.

PI

XX

r^^^^

MAURITIA GRACILIS

Ht. 30 Ft

57

PLATE XX.
Matjmtia gracilis,

n. sp.

Caranai, Lingo a Geral.

This very elegant

last.

The stem

The

M.

leaves are

much-drooping

and greatly

rather smaller than the

is

from twenty to thirty

feet high,

and ringed with conical spines rather

slender, waving,

smaller than in

species

is

aculeata.

from

to eight in

five

The

leaflets.

number with

petioles are slender, short,

The

dilated at the base.

spadices are three

among the leaves, of

the tree, much -branched

or four in number, growing from

very large size in proportion to

They bear great

and drooping.
which

is

of an oval shape

quantities of fruit,

and nearly

as large as that of

the Mauritia carana.

This beautiful

palm

little

Barcellos on the Rio Negro,

the river, and

is

is

common

thence

as far as the black-

water tributaries of the Orinoco.

close to the water's

individuals,

and

its

green colour, never

render

native river.

it

It

always grows

edge in clumps of thirty or forty

drooping leaves of a pale hoary
so"

much crowded

distinct outline, with the

fruit,

met with about

first

more than 300 miles up

as to lose their

bending clusters of rich brown

one of the greatest ornaments of

The

fruit is eaten, after

its

being softened by

soaking some time in water.

It

seems closely

allied

to

M. armata

of Martius,

PALM TREES

58
which

is

found

much

farther south, on the

the S. Francisco River, but

species.

is

banks of

probably quite a distinct

Fiixr.

MAURITJA PUMILa.

Ht.lOR.

OF THE AMAZON.

59

PLATE XXI.
Mauritia pumila,

n. sp.

Caranai, Lingoa Geral.

This curious

little

palm

is

only eight or ten feet high,

and has the stem

slender, ringed,

conical spines.

The

number, and the

more

leaves are rather small

leaflets are

rigid than in

much

and few in

shorter, broader

any other palm of

and rather

petioles are long

and armed with strong

thick,

this genus.

much

and

The

sheathing at

the bases which are persistent, clothing the stem some

down

distance

after the leaves

have dropped away from

them, a character not found in any other prickly-

stemmed
I only

in

two

The spadix

species.

and drooping.

The

met with

localities

fruit

this

is

very long, branched

was not seen.

palm on the Upper Rio Negro

on the sandy margins of

rivers

lakes just above the limits of the winter floods.

and

PALM TREES

60

Genus Lepidocarytjm, Martins.

Male

flowers

on one

flowers on another.

tubular sheaths.

The female

female or hermaphrodite

tree,

Spathes,

The male

imperfect,

bract-like,

flowers have six stamens.

flowers have three sessile stigmas

and

six

imperfect stamens.

The stems
tubercles

are very slender,

and have slender

The

spadices

are

petioles

spines or

leaves are fan-shaped,

and long swollen sheaths.

and pinnately branched,

elongate

growing from among the

unarmed with

The

and deeply ringed.

leaves.

The

fruits are

oblong

and covered with imbricated scales.

These delicate and very rare
differ botanically

from the

last

little

genus.

Palms scarcely

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.

PI XXII

Ford

LEPIDOCARYUM TENUE.

Ht.8R.

&West Imp

OF THE AMAZON*.

61

PLATE XXII.
Lepidocaryum

tentte, Martins.

Caranai do Mato, of the Rio Negro.

This,

the smallest

of the

fan-leaved

Palms, has a

smooth, ringed, waving stem as thick as one's finger

and

six or eight feet high.

with narrow drooping

stalks

dark green glossy leaves,

Its

leaflets,

grow on long and slender

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

shaded by the
Plate II.

rivers,

and

loftiest forest trees.

fig. 4.

the natural size.

represents a fruit of this species of

62

PALM TREES

Genus Geonoma, Willdenow.

Male and female flowers on
on

distinct spadices of the

Male

incomplete.

rudimentary

distinct trees, or rarely

same

flowers with

Spathe small,

tree.

six

stamens and a

Female flowers with three stigmas

pistil.

and a six-toothed ring of abortive stamens.

These are small palms with slender, smooth, ringed,
reed-like

The

stems.

irregularly pinnate,

bases

of the

slender and

petioles

more or

leaves are large, regularly or

with the

leaflets

The

sheathing.

less

spadices

are

branched, and the spathes are

double but small and membranous.

small,

broad, and the

round or ovate, and are not

The

fruits

are

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

feet

the

above

it.

level of the sea to

Many species may be

Palm House

at

Kew.

2000

seen flourishing in

PI .XXIII

Ford fWest Imp.

Fitoh litk

GEONOMA MULTIFLORA

Ht

12 Ft.

OF THE AMAZON.

63

PLATE XXIII.
Geonoma multielora,

Martins.

Ubimrana, Lingoa GeraL

This handsome

species

from eight to

is

fifteen

feet

high, and has the stem regularly ringed or jointed,

giving

it

large,

regularly pinnate

a reed-like appearance.

every side.

The

The

very regularly placed on

leaflets are

the midrib, and the terminal pair are

broader.

The

leaves are very

and gracefully drooping on

much

larger

slender and smooth,

petioles are

and

and

the sheathing bases have an expanded fibrous margin.

The

spadices

grow from among the lower

are short, erect

are very small

and simply branched.

and concealed among the

fruit is small, ovate,

and when

leaves,

and

The spathes
petioles.

The

ripe of a red colour.

This appears to be the Geonoma multiflora of Martius,

but the species are so closely

comparison of specimens

it

is

allied that

very

without a

difficult absolutely

to identify them.
I

have found

it

only in the Catinga forests of the

Upper Rio Negro, where

fruit is represented

it

occurs very sparingly.

on the Plate of the natural

size.

g2

PI XXIV.

Kjri

GEONOMA

PANICULIGERA.

Ht.9 Ft.

iWest Imp

65

PLATE XXIV.
Geonoma paniculigera,
Ubim
This

is

a species

Martins.

de Cotiw iya, Lingoa Geral.

from

six to

nine feet high and very

similar in appearance to the last.

The

have only three or four pairs of

leaflets of irregular

leaves, however,

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

the

soil as

last,

but

is

much more abundant.

It

Mar-

appears to agree well with the G. paniculigera of

tius.

There

is

a very closely allied species abundant in

certain parts of the flooded lands or

Rio Negro, which

much used

is

"gapo"

leaves being cut, the leaf-stalks are doubled

on side by

side to a strip of " pashhiba,"

with "sipos" (which are the air-roots of

other plants)

durable kinds

They

are said to

of roof,

of the

for thatching.

make one

and are much used

the semicircular "toldas" of canoes.

The

and hitched

and secured

Arums and
of the

most

for covering

They

are also

considered the best material for lining baskets of

salt,

66

PALM TREES

and persons often go

them
I

cies

several days' journey to procure

for both these purposes.

had no opportunity of
which produces these

" Ubim,"

closely
leaves,

examining the spe-

and which

is

called

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.

PI

XXV

W Btet Mi

Ford

GEONOMA RECTIFOLIA

Ht. 8 Ft.

& "West Imp

OF THE AMAZON.

67

PLATE XXV.
Geonoma

kectifolia, n.

sp.

Ubimrana, Lingoa Geral.

This

species is nearly allied

little

to the last.

It

reaches six or eight feet in height and has the stem

distinctly jointed

down

The

it.

and the leaves persistent some way

petioles

grow very upright, and there

are three or four pair of long, narrow

leaflets,

The

and rather

numerous from the

spadices are

axils

of the

lower leaves, and are small and simply branched

the fruit

is

which

narrow

and

very small, round and black.

This palm
to

rigid

the terminal being the largest.

it

may be
is

leaflets

distinguished from G. paniculigera,

most

closely allied,

and much more

by

its

erect habit

very long

and by

its

smaller and less-branched spadices growing lower down

on the stem, often below the

I

found

it

leaves.

in a few localities only

on the Upper Rio

Negro, growing in the sandy Catinga forest near the

margin of the

A
size.

river.

fruit is represented

on the Plate of the natural

PALM TREES

68

Genus Manicaria, Gartner.

Male and female

flowers in the

same

spadix.

Spathe

fusiform, fibrous, complete, breaking open irregularly.

Male

flowers with twenty-four to thirty stamens.

male flowers (situated below the male) with three

Fesessile

stigmas and twelve rudimentary stamens.

Stem

short, thick

and irregularly ringed.

Leaves

very large, entire and rigid, the sheathing bases per-

Spadices

sistent.

among

simply branched,

the leaves, nearly erect.

growing from

Fruit large, hard,

somewhat triangular or three-lobed and three-seeded,

externally very rugose.

Only one
habits the

species of this

Lower Amazon

genus

is

known, which

at the level of the sea.

in-

pi

xxvi

.?

44

&

<\

k
\

'Ail
mm
'

\
:
'

W Fitck

Y\

1 V

Jifli

Fora.

MANICARIA SACCIFERA

Ht 40

Ft.

a "West

imp

OF THE AMAZON.

69

PLATE XXVI.
Manicaria saccifera, Gartner.
Bussii,

Lingoa Geral.

This unique and handsome palm has the stem from ten
to

fifteen

high, curved or crooked and deeply

feet

The

ringed.

leaves are very large, entire, rigid

furrowed, and have a serrated margin

thirty feet long

gularly with

and four or

age.

The

five

petioles

wide, and split irreare

slender

expanded fibrous-edged sheath

broadly

and

they are often

at

with a

the

base.

These sheaths are persistent and often cover the stem

down

to the ground.

The spadices
leaves,

are numerous,

growing from among the

and are simply branched and drooping.

fruit is of

an

olive colour,

with a rugose or papillate exterior

spathe

is

fusiform and

texture and of a
it

brown

The

somewhat three-lobed and

entire, of

colour.

As

covering.

The

a fibrous cloth-like

the spadix expands

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 "bussu" produces the

any known palm, and for

largest entire leaves of

this reason, as well as

on

account of their firm and rigid texture, they form the

very best and most durable
split

down

The

thatch.

leaves are

the midrib and the halves laid obliquely on

the rafters, so that the furrows formed by the veins

in a nearly vertical direction
little

and serve

gutters to carry off the water

well-made thatch of "bussii"

years,

and an Indian

more

lie

many

so

as

rapidly.

will last ten or twelve

voyage

will often take a week's

in order to get a canoe-load of the leaves to cover his

house.

The spathe too

nishing him

Taken

is

with

off entire it

much
an

valued by the Indian, fur-

excellent

and

durable

cloth.

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
self a cap,

or joining.
flat,

it is

cunningly woven by nature without

When

palm

"bussu"

cut open longitudinally

seam

and pressed

used to preserve his delicate feather orna-

ments and gala

plaited

make him-

dresses,

leaves

which are kept in a chest of

between

of

layers

the

smooth

cloth.

This species inhabits the tidal swamps of the Lower

Amazon.
the Rio

palm

called

"bussu"

is

smaller size and

is

found on

also

Negro and Upper Amazon, but

it

probably a distinct species.

is

of

OF THE AMAZON.

A spathe

is

represented on the Plate and a dead stem

from which the leaves have entirely

Plate II.

natural

size.

71

fig. 3,

fallen.

a fruit of Manicaria saccifera of the

PALM TREES

72

Genus Desmoncus, Martins.

Male flowers on the upper parts of the branches of
the spadix, females on the lower.

woody,

at length

deciduous.

Male

stamens and linear acute anthers.

a short style

Spathe fusiform,
flowers with six

Female flowers with

and three stigmas and

six

small scaly

rudiments of stamens.

Stems

slender, flexible, climbing over shrubs or trees.

Leaves alternate, pinnate,

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,

stems and leaves are more or

and generally

red.

The

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

remarkably from

all

sea.

They

differ

other American palms in their long

climbing stems, in which they resemble the Calami or

Canes so abundant in the East Indies.

PI XXVII.

W.l u.ch
:

Bwl it West

Ub

DESMONCUS MACROACANTHUS. Ht

50 Ft

Imp.

OF THE AMAZON.

73

PLATE XXVII.
Desmoncus macroacanthus, Martins.
Jacitara,

The stem

of this

flexible, often

Lingoa Geral.

palm

is

very slender, weak and

and climbing

sixty or seventy feet long,

over bushes and trees or trailing along the ground.

is

armed with scattered tubercular

grow

alternately

along the stem

with from three to five pairs of

the midrib

is

prickles.
;

The

It

leaves

they are pinnate,

leaflets,

beyond which

produced and armed with several pairs of

strong spines directed backwards, and with numerous

smaller prickles.

waved or
into long

The

curled.

The

membranous

spadices

leaflets are ovate,

The bases

sheaths.

grow on long

stalks

from the

ventricose, erect, persistent

globular, of a red colour,

and

prickly,

and not

and the

are

fruit is

eatable.

or bark of this species

making the "tipitis" or

axils of

The spathes

the leaves and are simply branched.

The rind

with the edges

of the petioles are expanded

is

much used

elastic plaited cylinders

for

used

for squeezing the juice out of the grated Mandiocca-root

in the

manufacture of farinha.

times

made

These cylinders are some-

of the rind of certain water plants

and of

the petioles of several palms, but those constructed of

"Jacitara" are said to outlast two or three of the

others,

and though they are much more

difficult

to

PALM TREES

74

make, are most generally used among the Indian

When

tribes.

the cylinders are used they are suspended from

a strong pole, having been first filled with the grated

pulp.

long lever

is

passed through the loop at the

lower end of the "tipiti," by means of which

stretched, the

power being applied by a woman

on the further extremity of the

The

pole.

it

is

sitting

cylinder

thus becomes powerfully contracted, and the poisonous

juice runs out at every part of the surface

pan below in order

in a
for

it

to be carefully

would cause speedy death

which should drink

to

and

is

caught

thrown away,

any domestic animal

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

catch the

unwary

its

armed

traveller.

on every

leaves

How

side to

often will they seize

the insect-net of the ardent Entomologist just as he

making a dash

at

some

is

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 "jacitara" 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 igaripes or forest streams are

almost

filled

creepers,

up with various climbing grasses and

among which

nent place, and

it is

the "jacitara" holds a promi-

up these streams that the Indians

often delight to fix their abode.

In such cases they

OF THE AMAZON.
never cut

down

a branch, but pass

their little canoes

which wind

75

and repass

like snakes

They

tangled mass of thorny vegetation.

daily

among

the

are thus

almost safe against the incursions of the white traders,

who

often attack

carry

fire

them

in their

and children.

can penetrate for miles along a

is

retreats,

and sword into their peaceful houses and take

captive their wives

such as

most distant

But few white men

little

winding stream

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 "jacitara"

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. macroacanthus of Martius. Fine specimens of an allied species

may be

seen growing in the

fruit is represented

Palm House

at

Kew.

on the Plate of the natural

h 2

size.

PALM TREES

76

Genus Bactris, Jacquin.

Male and female

flowers intermingled in the

spadix, the females being

parts

and the males

terior short

Male

more abundant

Spathe double, ex-

in the upper.

and membranous,

interior complete,

woody.

Female

flowers with six, nine or twelve stamens.

flowers with

same

in the lower

three sessile stigmas, and the stamens

represented by a rudimentary ring.

The stems

in this

genus are very slender, ringed,

The

nearly smooth or with a few scattered spines.

leaves are

more or

less terminal, generally

ber, pinnate or entire,

much

The spathe

sheathing and very spiny.

clothed with spines.

The

is

also

spadices are simple or simply

branched and grow from the

fruit is small

few in num-

with the bases of the petioles

axils

The

of the leaves.

and round, and the outer pulp

is

often

subacid and eatable.

This very extensive genus of small prickly Palms

contains forty-six species,

Two

species

described

all

natives of South America.

by Martius

are

here figured,

together with six others apparently new, but as

be impossible to identify those not seen in

of

them have been

The

where

left

may
some

unnamed.

species here figured are all

I

it

fruit,

from the Rio Negro,

began studying them, and are

sufficient to give

an idea of their general characteristics and aspect.

pi xxvnr

F-ird S-.TAfest

BACTRIS PECTJNATA.

Ht.8Ft.

Imp

OF THE AMAZON.

77

PLATE XXVIII.
Bactris pectinata, Martins.
Iu,

The

Lingoa GeraL

stem of this species

is

from

six to

ten feet high,

very slender, strongly ringed or jointed and smooth,

but

other parts of the plant, the petioles, sheaths,

all

spathes,

&c.,

are prickly.

The

leaves are regularly

pinnate, with the leaflets long, narrow, pointed and

The long sheathing bases

beneath.

hairy

the

stem often half way

petioles are persistent, covering the

down

of

to the ground.

The

spadices

sheaths

grow from among the

persistent leaf-

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

and

is

of a red colour,

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.

fruit is

shown on the Plate of the natural

size.

'fillS

Hi

{'?.

Fi

79

PLATE XXIX.
Bactris

n. sp.

Marayarana, Lingoa Geral.

The stem

of this species

and ten or twelve

is

about an inch in diameter

feet high, thickly set with flat black

spines disposed in rings.

The

and irregularly pinnate, the

leaves are rather large

leaflets

being in

little

groups of two or four, standing out at various angles

from the midrib, the groups themselves being

nately along

it.

The

leaflets are

set alter-

elongate and have the

midrib produced in a bristly point, and the terminal

pair are not larger than the rest.

armed with

flat

The

petioles are

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

is

so peculiar as to leave little doubt of its being a

species.

It

fruit at the time, yet its habit

seems most nearly

macroacantha of Martius.

allied to the

new

Bactris

F1..XXX.

End

BACTRIS ELATIOR Ht.20R.

feWssI

';

81

PLATE XXX.
Bactris elatior,

n. sp.

Marayarana, Lingoa Geral,

This

is

a tall

fifteen to

and elegant

twenty

feet

species.

The stem

is

from

high and about one inch in dia-

meter, with a few scattered groups of small spines.

The

leaves

narrowed

are regularly pinnate, with broad leaflets

at the base

and ending in a lengthened

the terminal pair being rather broader.

and

The

point,

petioles

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
persistent.

are elongate fusiform

The

fruit is small

and

spiny,

and are

and globular.

This very graceful palm grows in the moist part of

the virgin forest of the

found

it

Upper Rio Negro, where

and

it

on the banks of small

forest streams

seems quite distinct from any of the very numerous

species described

by Martius.

Pi .XXXI

Ford S

BACTRIS

Ht 20

Bi

VW

Imu

83

PLATE XXXI.
Bactris
Native

The stem
five feet

slightly

n. sp.

name unknown.

of this curious

palm

is

from twenty to twenty-

high and very slender.

It is

marked with

sunk rings and has a few scattered

The

leaves are rather small, few in

The

leaflets are rigid,

narrowed

the end and suddenly tapering

number and

spines.

terminal.

at the base, widest near

to a point.

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

" gapo" or flooded lands of the Upper Rio Negro, and

at the

time had neither flowers nor

and arrangement of the

fruit.

The form

leaflets are so peculiar that it

cannot be confounded with any species yet described.

leaflet is

peculiar form.

represented of a larger size to show the

p:i

ixm

BACTRIS MACRO CAR PA.

Ht.10 Ft

85

PLATE XXXII.
Bactris macrocarpa,
Iu,

This

n. sp.

Lingoa Geral.

species has the stem about an inch in diameter

and ten or twelve

feet high, distinctly jointed,

smooth

and reed -like, but with a few spines in small groups

the joints.

The

leaves are terminal, of moderate size

and rather interruptedly pinnate.

grow

in pairs

at

The

and are broad, narrowed

leaflets often

at the base

and

have the midrib produced at the point, the terminal

pair being the largest.

thickly set with whitish

The

The

petioles

and sheaths are

flat prickles.

spadices are small, five- or six- branched,

rather long-stalked.
persistent.

The

The spathe

is

small,

and

smooth and

with a produced apex,

fruit is oval,

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

the large size of

its

fruit.

it

It

is

also

remarkable for

grows on the dry sandy

86

PALM TREES

soil

It

of the Catinga forests of the

seems most nearly

A
size,

allied to

fruit is represented

and a

form.

leaflet

Upper Rio Negro.

B. mitis of Martius.

on the Plate of the natural

reduced one-fourth to show the peculiar

OXXII

BACTRIS TENUIS

Ht.6

Ft.

OF THE AMAZON.

87

PLATE XXXIII.
Bactris tenuis,
Iu,

In

this species the

quill,

Lingoa Geral.

stem

is

not thicker than a goose

The

The

and smooth.

distinctly jointed

terminal, four or five in number,

pinnate.

n. sp.

are elongate

leaflets

produced points, four or

five in

leaves are

and rather irregularly

and

with

acute,

number, on each

side

of the midrib, the terminal pair being the broadest.

The

petioles

small,

their sheathing bases are covered with

black spines.

flat,

The

and

spadices

grow from below the

very small and unbranched.

erect,

persistent

and smooth.

The

and are

leaves

The spathes

are fusiform,

fruit

is

small,

globose, and of a red colour.

This
part of

is

one of the smallest of Palms, and in every

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

i

PALM TREES

88
them.

It

grows exposed to the sun in the sandy

Catinga forests of the Upper Rio Negro.

An

entire spadix with fruit is represented

Plate, of the natural size.

on the

PL XXXI

BACTRIS SIMPLICIFRONS.

Ht.6Ft.

OF THE AMAZON.

89

PLATE XXXIV.
Bactris simplicifrons, Martkis.
Iii,

The stem

of this

pearance that
six in

of

Lingoa Geral.

little

B.

palm resembles

The

tenuis.

in size

leaves

and ap-

are five or

number, terminal, and consist of a single broad

bifid leaflet, or
leaflets.

more properly

The

petioles

and

a pair of opposite terminal

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

name of Bactris simuncommon in the dry Catinga

described by Martius under the

plicifrons.

forests of the

It

is

not

Upper Rio Negro.

PALM TREES

90

Bactris mar aj a, Martins.

Maraja, Lingoa Geral.
This

is

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

The

places where

it

am

acquainted with.

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.

P1XDCV

&>..

BACTRIS INTEGRIFOLIA.

OF THE AMAZON.

91

PLATE XXXV.
Bactris integrifolia,
Iu,

This beautiful
the

n. sp.

Lingoa GeraL

species has the stern hardly so thick as

little finger,

and nine or ten

The

distinctly jointed.

feet high,

smooth and

leaves are four or five in

num-

ber, terminal, entire, three or four times as long as they

are wide,
petioles

long,

The

bifid at the end.

and their sheathing bases are thickly

flat,

The

and not very deeply

with

set

black spines.

spadices are very small, erect

and two-branched,

growing from among the persistent sheathing bases

The spathes

below the leaves.

persistent, clothed with adpressed

fruit is small

are small, erect

brown

spines.

and

The

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

In both cases

it

between Venezuela and Brazil passes.

grew

in the

shady virgin

forest.

92

PALM TREES

Genus Guilielma, Martins.

Male and female flowers mixed
Spathe

bracteate.

complete, woody.

double;

Male

in the

exterior

same spadix,

bifid;

interior

flowers with six stamens

Female flowers with three

a rudimentary pistil.

and

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

and pinnate, but in the young

leaves are terminal

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

nada.

They

are lofty

remarkably handsome crown of

only

is

which

found in the Amazon

it is

commonly

New

Gra-

and conspicuous Palms with a

foliage.

district,

cultivated.

One

species

in all parts of

GUILIELM

OF THE AMAZON.

93

PLATE XXXVI.
GUILIELMA SPECIOSA, Mavtius.
Pupunha, Lingoa Geral.
Pirijao, 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.

feet in height,

situations
are very

it

and grows quite

erect,

It reaches sixty

though

becomes curved and waving.

in exposed

The

forming a nearly spherical crown to the stem

leaflets

tions,

leaves

numerous, terminal, pinnate and drooping,

;

and the

growing out from the midrib in various

direc-

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 Bussii, but as the age of the tree increases they

break up into regular narrow

The

spadices

small, simply branched

are ventricose,

leaflets.

grow from beneath the

leaves,

and drooping.

woody and

and are

The spathes

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.

most instances the seed

is

abortive, the

whole

In
fruit

PALM TREES

94

Occasionally, however, fruits

being a farinaceous mass.

are found containing the perfect stony seed,

of undeveloped fruits
soil

and climate,

Amazon

but

is

found wild in the

invariably planted

In their

Indians' houses.

may

be partly due to change of

for the tree is not

district,

these trees

may

and they

This production

are then nearly double the usual size.

near the

many hundreds

villages

of

often be seen, adding to the beauty of

the landscape, and supplying the inhabitants with an

abundance of wholesome food.

In

fact it here takes

the place of the cocoa-nut in the East, and

much

is

almost as

esteemed.

As the stems
up them

are so spiny,

it

is

impossible to climb

The

to procure the fruit in the ordinary way.

Indians therefore construct rough stages up the sides

by securing

of the trees, or form rude ladders

cross

by which they mount so

pieces between two of them,

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.

kind of

flour,

like cassava

They

are also

bread

or the

meal

and forms a subacid creamy

and many other

tame monkeys

ground up into a

and made into cakes which are roasted

eat

is

fermented in water

liquid.

Parrots,

macaws

fruit-eating birds devour them,

them

greedily,

and

though the wild ones

cannot climb the spiny stems to obtain them.

The wood
ingly

When

hard,

of this tree

when

old

and black

is

exceed-

turning the edge of any ordinary axe.

descending the River Uaupes in April 1852,

OF THE AMAZON.

number

had a

upon

restraint

Their

first

they had

95

whose objections to any

of parrots

me much

their liberty caused

trouble.

cage was of wicker, and in a couple of hours

green wood was

but the same time only was

tried,

gnaw

required to

Then tough

themselves at liberty.

all set

Thick bars of deal

that through.

were bitten through in a single night, so I then tried

the hard

wood

of the Pashiuba.

a short time, but in

gnawing they had

escaped.

was

chipped

now began

when one

of

my

my

away and again

no iron

that

could not bite that.

and bars made from

it,

if

me

to try

Pu-

their beaks were of iron they

tree

and

was accordingly cut down

I

had the

satisfaction of

seeing that their most persevering efforts

little

for bars

resources were exhausted,

Indians recommended

me

piinha, assuring

these

despair

to

and

to be procured

This checked them for

than a week by continual

less

now made

impression.

The very sharp

are

needle-like spines of this tree

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

On

near the Andes.

never found wild.

It

the
is

Amazon and Rio Negro

having a smooth polished stem, which

Very
great

fine

is

a mistake.

specimens of this tree are growing in the

Palm House

Plate III.

it is

mentioned by Humboldt as

fig.

at

Kew.

4. represents a fruit of the natural

size.

PALM TREES

96

Genus Acrocomia, Martins.

Female flowers
part of the

Male

in the inner,

same

spadix.

Spathe complete, woody.

flowers with six stamens

Female flowers with a short

male flowers in the outer

and a rudimentary pistil.

style

and three stigmas,

and a ring of abortive stamens.

The stems

of these

or less prickly.

The

Palms are
leaves

tall,

strong,

and more

are large, pinnate,

much

drooping, and forming a dense spherical head of foliage.

The

leaflets are linear,

The spadix

prickly.
is

round or

oval, of

and with the

is

petioles are very

simply branched, and the fruit

an olive-green colour, and has a

firm fleshy outer covering, which

is

often eaten.

Eight species of this genus are known, inhabiting

various parts of South America, but
Brazil.

One

or perhaps

more

particularly

two species are found

at Para,

but none on the Upper Amazon, where the alluvial

and dense

forests are unsuited to their growth.

soil

PI

XXXVII

ACROCOMIA LASIOSPATHA

Hi

4-0 Ft

OF THE AMAZON.

97

PLATE XXXVII.
ACROCOMIA LASIOSPATHA, Martins.
Mucuja, Lingo a Geral.

The stem

of this tree

is

about forty feet high, strong,

The

smooth and ringed.

leaves are rather large, ter-

The leaflets

minal and drooping.

are long

and narrow,

and spread irregularly from the midrib, every part of

which

is

in

young

The

The sheathing bases of the

very spiny.

stalks are persistent

trees clothe

it

down

to the ground.

grow from among the

spadices

leaf-

on the upper part of the stem, and

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

greenish-olive colour, and has a thin layer of firm edible

pulp of an orange colour covering the seed.

This species
Para, where

feathery leaves
oily

and

sought

common

is

its
is

It

The

fruit,

much esteemed and

grows on dry

the Lower Amazon, but

it

is

of

crown of drooping

very ornamental.

bitter, is very

after.

the neighbourhood

in

nearly globular

soil

quite

is

though
eagerly

about Para and

unknown

in the

interior.

Several

resembling

young plants of
it,

this

and a

species closely

the A. sclerocarpa, are growing in the

98

Palm House
place

are

at

Kew, and

in the

Museum

specimens of the stem and

at the

fruit

same

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.

ever,

seem very closely

allied, if

The two, how-

they are really distinct

species.

A
size.

fruit is

represented on the Plate of the natural

PALM TREES

100

Genus Astrocaryum, Meyer.

Female flowers few in number, situated beneath the
males on the same spadix.

Spathe complete, woody.

Male

and a rudimentary

flowers with six stamens

pistil.

Female flowers with three stigmas and a rudimentary

ring of stamens.

In this genus the stems are generally lofty and

thickly set with rings of spines, but
stemless.

The

leaves are large

some

species are

and pinnate, the

leaflets

elongate and linear, and as well as the petioles very

prickly.
fruits

The

spadices are simply branched,

and the

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

from almost every

spathe, being
foot long.

part,

stem,

a repulsive aspect,

leaves, fruit-stalk

armed with acute spines

in

some

and

cases a

ASTROCARYUM MURUMURU. Ht

20 Ft.

OF THE AMAZON.

10L

PLATE XXXVIII.
AsTROCARYUM

MTTRTJMURTJ, MartiuS.

Murumuru, Lingoa GeraL

This palm has the stem from eight
irregularly ringed,

The

spines.

to twelve feet high,

and armed with long scattered black

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

directed downwards,

The

spadices

and

grow from among the

simply branched and spiny, erect

drooping with the

splitting

fruit.

generally

often eight inches long.

leaves

when

The spathes

open and deciduous.

The

and are

in flower, but

are elongate,

fruit is of a

rate size, oval, of a yellowish colour,

mode-

and with a small

quantity of rather juicy eatable pulp covering the stony

seed.

On the Upper Amazon cattle eat the fruits of the

Murumuru, wandering about for days in the forest to
The hard stony seeds pass through their
procure it.
bodies undigested and become thickly scattered over the

pastures adjoining the houses.

it is

They

are so hard that

almost impossible to break them, except by a very

hard blow with a large hammer.

or kernel

is

The internal albumen

also excessively hard, nearly

to vegetable ivory.

approaching

Yet pigs are very fond of these

PALM TREES

102
little

cocoa-nuts, and on one estate on the

Upper Ama-

zon where I was staying, they had scarcely anything else

which had

to eat during a part of the year but those

They might

passed through the stomachs of the cows.

constantly be seen cracking the shell with their powerful

and grinding up the hard

jaws,

on which the

make any

impression.

existed on this food, but in

some cases

teeth of few other animals could

They not only

kernels,

got actually fat upon

The black

it.

vultures (Cathartes)

occasionally eat the outer covering of this

palm

fruits,

when hard-pushed

and other

for food.

This tree grows on the tide-flooded lands

Lower Amazon and on the margins of the

gapos of the Upper Amazon, though
the two
is

may be

distinct species.

from near Para.

Palm House

at the

and

possible that

The specimen

figured

There are living plants in the

Royal

portion of a leaf

and a

it is

of the

rivers

is

Kew

Gardens.

enlarged to show the spines,

fruit is represented of the natural size.

ASTROCARYUM GYNACANTHUM.Hi

>Fi

OF THE AMAZON.

103

PLATE XXXIX.
ASTROCARYUM GYNACANTHTJM, MartiuS.
Mumbaca, Lingoa
This

Geral.

species has a rather slender stem about fifteen

feet high, covered

in regular rings

with long,

flat,

black spines, arranged

and pointing downwards.

are terminal, rather large

and pinnate.

The

The

leaves
leaflets

spread regularly in one plane, and are elongate and

the terminal

acute,

The bases

broader.
ing,

and are

The

all

spadices

and are

erect

ripe fruit,

pair

being

rather

shorter

and

of the petioles are broadly sheath-

densely spiny.

grow from the bases of the lower

when

in flower, but

which grows in a dense cluster

the long stalk which

is

gate persistent spathe.

very spiny, as

The

leaves,

hang down with the

is

at the

end of

also the elon-

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

species

is

common

allied

or perhaps identical

about the city of Para.

PI .XL.

ASTROCARYUM VULCARE

Ht.50Ft.

105

PLATE XL.
AsTROCARYUM VULGARE,
Tucum, Lingoa
This

is

a lofty tree, the stem

MartillS.

Geral.

growing to a height of

forty or fifty feet, with a diameter of six or eight inches.

It

covered with regular

is

broad bands or rings of

thickly set black spines, with narrow spaces between

The

them.

leaves are terminal,

The

pinnate.

and regularly

large

leaflets are elongate, regularly

spreading

The midrib and expanded sheaths of

and drooping.

the petioles are densely clothed with long,

spines, having a pale

flat,

dusky

The edges

expanded margin.

of

the leaflets are also armed with fine spines.

The spadix
hid

among

the fruit

is

is oval,

as to render
is

The spathe

it

is

palm

it difficult

bristles

to handle

not indigenous,

mandiocca

use neither the

It is only the

is

often

persistent,

and

of a greenish colour and not eatable.

this

fields

is

with sharp spines so

any portion of

fruit,

and

it

yet

in places

cultivated with care in

and about

with the " Pupunha " and other

to

is

of great importance to the Indians,

where
their

and simply branched, and

the foliage.

Every part of

it

erect

their houses, along

fruit trees.

Yet they

the stem, nor the full-grown leaves.

unopened leaves which they make use of

manufacture cordage, superior in fineness, strength

and durability to that procured from the Mauritia

PALM TREES

106
fleocuosa.

They

strip off the epidermis

same manner

in the

species,

but while the " miriti "

{t

hammocks, the

and prepare

it

as described in the account of that

is

tucum " serves

principally used for

for

bow

strings, fish-

ing-nets and other purposes where fineness, combined

Some of the tribes on the

Upper Amazon, however, make all their hammocks of

with strength,

is

required.

" tucum," which renders

it

probable that the Mauritia

ftexuosa does not grow there.

The Brazilians of the Rio Negro and Upper Amazon

make very beautiful hammocks of fine " tucum " 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

each,

and

when ornamented with the feather-work borders,

Most of them are sent as presents
double that sum.

at

to

Rio de Janeiro.
Dr. Martius has mistaken the species from which
this

cordage

is

manufactured, stating

" Tucuma," which, though very nearly

used for the purpose.
native

names

is

The

it

to

be the

allied, is

never

close resemblance of the

probably what led to the mistake,

though they are never confounded by the Brazilians.

The " tucum " is found on the " terra firme " or dry
forest land of the

Amazon and Rio Negro.

ing in the Palm House at Kew.

It is

grow-

Pl.XLI.

ASTROCARYUM TUCUMA

Ht.40

Ft.

107

OF THE AMAZON.

PLATE

XLI.

ASTROCARYUM TUCUMA,
Tucuma, Lingoa
This palm

Geral.

from thirty to forty

is

McirtklS.

and

height,

feet in

has the stem armed with narrow rings of black spines.

The

leaves are terminal, rather large

nate.

The

leaflets

are

elongate,

and regularly pinlinear

and much

drooping, and the midribs and petioles are very prickly.

The sheathing bases

of the leaf- stalks are very

grows erect from among the leaves and

The

branched.

fruit is

much

The spadix

swollen where they spring from the stem.

is

simply

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-

cuja and equally esteemed for food by the Indians.

This species

is

very nearly allied to the

readily be distinguished

drooping
aspect of

Para, and

its

its

swollen petioles.

also

last,

but

may

globular fruit, more

less prickly habit,

leaflets,

is

by

and the peculiar

It is

abundant near

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 XLII

ASTROCAKYUM JAUARI

Ht 40 Ft

109

PLATE
AsmocARYUM

XLII.

jauari, Martins,

Jauari, Lingoa Geral,

The

Jauari has the stem rather slenderer than the

Tucuma, but of about equal height, and armed with

regular narrow rings of spines.

and of moderate

The

size.

The

leaves are terminal

leaflets are long,

narrow

and very much drooping, and the midribs and sheaths

are thickly covered with long,

The

amongst the
and not

The

black spines.

flat,

spadices are erect, simply branched,

The

leaves.

eatable.

rather small dense head of foliage,

with the prickly habit of this palm, render

one of the
is

and hidden

small, oval, green,

fruit is

least pleasing of the family

increased

by

combined
altogether

and the

abundance in many

its

it

feeling

localities, ex-

tending for miles along the river-banks to the exclusion

of any other species.
useful

among

It is

moreover one of the

least

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.

Villa

Nova, about

where the

tidal rise

five

and

It first occurs near

hundred miles up the

fall

of the water ceases

river,

and the

PALM TREES

110
annual floods

rise to a considerable height.

point upwards

it is

on the margins of the

or eight

months

rivers, in places

in the year

species of

it

is

for

which are

under water.

found beyond the limits of the

up the Rio Negro

From

this

very abundant, growing everywhere

floods,

for six

It is never

and in travelling

hundreds of miles the only

Astrocaryum met with.

PI XLT1I

jEFWft^*.*

^STROCARYUM A.CULEATUM

".

Jit

20Ft

OF THE AMAZON.

Ill

PLATE XLIIL
Astrocaryum aculeatum

Meyer.

Maraya, Lingoa Geral.

This small
feet

species has the stem

fifteen to

twenty

high and about two inches in diameter, with

obscure rings of spines at

irregular

leaves are terminal, rather large

The

from

leaflets are

The

narrow, rigid and scarcely drooping,

with the terminal pair broader.

leaflets are

intervals.

and regularly pinnate.

The midrib and

smooth, but the bases and sheaths of the

petioles are very prickly.

The

spadices

very small and

grow from below the

simply branched.

small, ovate, swollen, erect, persistent

The

trees

were not found in

and

are

The spathes

are

leaves

and very prickly.

fruit.

This tree agrees pretty well with Dr. Martins' description

of

forest of the

A. aculeatum.

Upper Rio Negro.

It

grows in the virgin

113

PLATE XLIV.
ASTROCARYTJM ACAULE, MartlUS.
Lingoa Geral.

Iu,

This palm never has any stem, the

once from the ground.

They

The

slender and pinnate.

leaves springing at

are eight or ten feet long,

leaflets are

very narrow and

drooping, and are disposed in groups of three or four,

at

along the midrib,

intervals

the

separate

is

leaflets

The whole plant

standing out in different directions.

exceedingly spiny, the midrib and petioles having

long,

flat,

black spines directed downwards, and the

leaflets are also

spiny beneath.

The spadix grows from among the

stalk

and

is

The spathe

simply branched.

and fusiform,

at first erect,

The

fruit is oval

apex, of a pale yellow colour,

firm pulp which

is

long-

elongate

is

but gradually bends over at

the end, forming a hood over the fruit, and

clothed with spines.

on a

leaves

is

densely

with a produced

and has a thin layer of

sometimes eaten, but

is

not very

agreeable.

The rind

of the leaf-stalks of this

the Indians for

making

baskets.

It

palm

is

used by

grows in the dry

Catinga forests of the Upper Rio Negro, often covering

PALM TREES

114

large tracts of ground.

repulsive

A
and

It

has altogether a rather

and inelegant appearance.

fruit is

shown on the Plate of the natural

a spadix

reduced showing the spathe bent over

size,
it.

OF THE AMAZON.

115

PLATE XLV.
ASTEOCAHYUM
Iu,

This

species has a

HITMILE, n. Sp.

Lingoa Geral.

stem two or three

feet high, or is

The

altogether stemless like the last.

leaves are

or eight feet long, slender and pinnate.

are

much broader than

in spreading groups,

midribs

and

A.

in

are

six

leaflets

acaule, similarly disposed

much

but not so

petioles

The

drooping.

armed with long,

The

slender,

cylindrical spines pointing in various directions.

The
erect

spadices

grow from among the

and simply branched.

somewhat curved over the

thickly

set

spines.

bristly

covered with scattered

colour.

fruit,

The

stiff hairs,

and are

are erect or

and clothed with

fruit

is

globular,

and of an orange-red

not eatable.

It is

This species
as the last.

leaves

The spathes

is

not

uncommon

The specimen with

a moister part of the forest.

in the
a stem

It

same

situations

was growing in

seems to be an unde-

scribed species.

The stemless and short-stemmed

are

shown on the

the natural

size.

Plate,

and a

state of this plant

fruit is represented of

116

PALM TREES

Genus Attalea, Humboldt.

Flowers bracteate, male and female in the same spadix,

and male

and woody.

on the same or on a

in another spadix,

Spathes double, the interior one complete

different tree.

Male flowers with from

six to

stamens and a small rudimentary

flowers with a short style

twenty-four

Female

pistil.

and three stigmas, and a cup-

shaped ring of rudimentary stamens.

The stems
drical

The

of these palms are generally lofty, cylin-

and smooth, but there are some stemless

leaves of all are very

pinnate

the petioles have the margins of the sheathing

The spadix grows

bases often more or less fibrous.

from among the lower

and the

species.

handsome, large and regularly

leaves,

and

fruit is ovate or oblong,

is

simply branched

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

piassaba, and the stony seeds from the

a kind of vegetable ivory.

same

tree supply

OF THE AMAZON.

117

PLATE XLYI.
Attalea speciosa, Martins.
Uauassu, Lingoa Geral.

This noble palm has the stem

straight, cylindrical

fifty

or sixty feet high,

The

and nearly smooth.

very large, terminal and regularly pinnate.

are elongate, rigid, closely set together,

out

flat

on each

side of the midrib.

leaves are

The

leaflets

and spreading

The sheathing

bases of the petioles are persistent for a greater or less

distance

down the stem, and

young

in

trees

down

to

the ground, as in the (Enocarpus batawd.

The

spadices

grow from among the

large and simply branched.

The

leaves

and are

fruit is of large size

compared with most American palms, being about three

inches long, and from this circumstance
native

The

The young

before the stem

is

plants produce very large leaves

formed, and

as,

preparation, they produce a

shaken

leaflet is

it

is

in this state that

till it falls

leaves

from

though they require some

more uniform thatch.

partially open,

The

and then each

torn at the base so as to remain hanging by

midrib only, which

secure

it

The unopened

they are generally used.

the centre are preferred,

its

derives its

foliage of this tree is very extensively used for

thatching.

leaf is

it

signifying " large fruit."

name " Uauassu,"

firmly.

is

however quite

They thus hang

all

sufficient to

at right angles to

118
the midrib of the

generally

known

which admits of their being

leaf,

in a very regular

manner on the

as

laid

They

rafters.

are

"paiha branca" or "white thatch/'

from the pale yellow colour of the unopened

leaves,

and

are considered the best covering for houses in places

where Bussu cannot be obtained.

This species grows on the dry forest lands of the

Upper Amazon.
called "

On

the Rio

Curua " [Attalea

On

often used for thatching.

in the neighbourhood of

uncommon.

It is a

on lands flooded
natives Urucuri.

the smoke

is

at

is

species

found and

high

lofty species

tides,

and

is

is

Amazon and

the Lower

Para the Attalea excelsa

handsome

The

Negro a stemless

spectabilis)

is

not

which grows
by the

called

fruit of this tree is burnt,

and

used to black the newly made india-rubber.

Martius says that the

fruit of the

A. speciosa

for this purpose, but that species is not

principal rubber districts, while the

A.

is

used

found in the

excelsa is

abun-

dant there.
Several species of Attalea are cultivated in the

House

at

Palm

Kew.

Plate III.

the natural

fig. 1. is

size.

a fruit of Attalea spectabilis of

PALM TREES

120

Genus Maximiliana, Martins.

Some

spadices with only male flowers, others with

male and female flowers on the same

large, complete,

woody.

flowers with three or six stamens,

rudimentary

Spathes

tree.

Male

Flowers with bracts.

and with a minute

Female flowers with a short

pistil.

style

and three stigmas, and rudimentary stamens forming a

membranaceous cup.

The stems

of these magnificent

The

and smooth.

The bases

pinnate.

The

is

are

tall,

erect

and irregularly

of the petioles are persistent, often

covering the stem quite

spathe

Palms

leaves are very large

down

The

to the ground.

woody, complete, longitudinally cut and beaked.

grow from among the lower leaves and

spadices

are

simply branched, but very densely clustered with the

fruit,

which

is

Only three
handsome

ovate,

and has a dry external covering.

species of this

plants.

One

Islands, one of Brazil,

Amazon

district.

is

genus are known,

a native of the

and a third

is

all

very

West India

common

in the

MILIANA RE GIA

Ht 80 Ft
.

OF THE AMAZON.

121

PLATE XLVXI.
Maximiliana regia, Martins,
Lingo a Geral.

Inaja,

This palm has a

and pinnate.

massive stem, smooth and ob-

lofty

The

scurely ringed.

The

leaves are very large,

leaflets are

terminal

arranged in groups of

three, four or five, at intervals along the midrib,

from

which they stand out in different directions, and are

The

very long and drooping.

persistent a short distance

times

down

bases of the petioles are

down

to the ground, even

the stem, and some-

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

The spathes

very densely clustered.

shaped, ventricose and woody, with a long beak.

fruits are elongate

and

are large, spindle-

The

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 Indians

fifty

feet long,

and these did not contain the

entire petiole, nor were they of the largest size.

however, to

the

loose

irregular

distribution

Owing,
of the

122
leaflets,

they do not produce such an effect of great

size as those of

The

the Jupati, which are more regular.

woody spathes

great

are used

by hunters

with water in them they stand the

to cook

meat

in, as

They

are also used as baskets for carrying earth,

sometimes

The

for cradles.

fruits are often eaten

the Indians, and are particularly attractive to

and

to

some

fire well.

monkeys

abundant from Para

is

to the

Upper Amazon and the sources of the Rio Negro.

grows only in the dry virgin

and

fruit

by

fruit-eating birds.

This magnificent palm

Young

and

trees are
clusters

growing

It

forest.

Palm House

in the

and spathes

at

Kew,

are preserved in the

Museum.
Plate III.

fig. 3. is

a view of the spathe, and

represents a fruit, the natural

size.

fig. 2,

PALM TREES

124

Genus Cocos, Linnceas.

Female flowers

below them in the same spadix.

double,

outer

Male

bracts.

mentary

pistil.

The stems
drical

woody.

interior

flowers

with

six

Spathe

Flowers with

stamens and a rudi-

Female flowers with three stigmas.

of this genus are lofty, generally cylin-

and smooth.

pinnate.
is

small,

and

plentiful than the males,

less

situated

The

The spadix

is

leaves are large

and regularly

simply branched, and the

fruit

ovate oblong, and with an outer fibrous covering.

Eighteen species of Cocos are

known, seventeen

being natives of South America, principally of Brazil,

while one only, the well-known Cocoa-nut,

vated in every part

genus are found in

to prefer

drier

it

a native

is

and more elevated countries, some of

them reaching an
the sea.

is

now universally cultiFew species of the

of the tropics.
They appear
the Amazon district.

of the Old World, though

altitude of

near 8000 feet above

"&&*.

rrr^t

>ord&West Imp.

FERA

Hi

60 Ft:

OF THE AMAZON.

125

PLATE XLVIII.
Cocos nucifera, Linnceus.
Coqueiro, Portuguese.

The Cocoa-nut.

The

stem of this well-known palm

seldom quite

erect,

The

leaves are large, terminal

The

leaflets

at the

From

bottom.

and regularly pinnate.

and spread out very

are rigid,

side of the midrib.

petioles

very smooth,

is

and often much thicker

flat

on each

the sheathing bases of the

grows a compact fibrous material resembling in

texture the spathe of the Bussu.

The spadices

are produced from

large,

and have

among

the leaves,

The fruits

and are large and simply branched.

are very

a dense fibrous external covering over

the well-known cocoa-nut.

This tree
is

is

not a native of South America, but as

generally cultivated in every part of the tropics, I

have given a figure of

is

it

the rigidity of

slightly,

flatness

and the
and

massive in
fruit

which

its

it.

Its peculiar characteristic

leaves,

which curve or droop very

leaflets

regularity.

spread out with remarkable

The

accordance with
it

the

stem

also

is

rather

immense weight

of

produces, and the whole tree, though

exceedingly handsome, has not that light and feathery

appearance which
It is

it is

often represented as possessing.

not impossible, however, that

it

may have

ac-

PALM TREES

126

by

quired

its

naturalization

somewhat

differing

from

when growing on the

of India

There

and the
it is

in

its

America an aspect

characteristic

features

sea-shore, on the coral islands

Pacific.

of the greatest utility to man.

food and drink and

Its

oil.

cordage and matting, and

fibres are

It supplies

woven into

even furnishes animal as

it

well as vegetable food, herds of swine being fed

fattened entirely on

On

its fruit.

the banks of the

see at once that

it

is

Amazon, on the

in a foreign land.

any useful purpose, the

an occasional luxury.

fruit

among

unknown.

we

it is

applied

only being consumed as

In the towns and larger villages

where the Portuguese have

but

contrary,

It flourishes

indeed with great luxuriance, but no part of

to

and

settled

it

has been planted,

the Indians of the interior

it is still

quite

of the amazon.

127

List of the Palms described in this

Work, with

their Native Names and Uses.

Botanical Name.
Leopoldinia
pulchra

major
piassaba

Native Name.

Uses.

Stem used for fencing,

Fruit for making salt.

Jara
Jara assu
Piassaba

rafters,

&c.

Fibre for cordage, brooms, &c.

leaves for thatching
fruit eat;

able.

Euterpe
oleracea

Fruit for

Assai

making a drink; stem

for rafters, &c.

catinga

CEnocarpus
baccaba

Assaide Catinga. Fruit for making a drink.

Baccaba

Fruit

makes a drink and

oil

leaves

for thatching,

batawa,

Patawa

disticha

Baccaba
Baccaba miri

minor

Fruit makes a drink

spinous processes used for making arrows.
Leaves for thatching.
Fruit makes a drink.
;

...

Iriartea

exorhiza

Stem

Pashiuba

&c.
ventricosa

Pashiuba
guda

barri-

Stem

split for floors

;

and

ceilings,

air-roots for graters.

split

floors,

&c.

lances, harpoons,
swollen part of stem

for
;

for canoes,

setigera

Pashiuba miri... Stem hollowed for making blowtubes or Gravatanas.

Raphia
taedigera

Jupati

Leaf-stalks split for making boxes,

partitioning houses, doors, &c.

Miruti

Fruit makes a drink; fibres of

leaves are twisted into string

Mauritia
flexuosa

for

hammocks, &c.

leaf-stalks

as the last.

pumila

Caranai
Caranai
Caranai

carana

Carana

aculeata
gracilis

makes a drink.
makes a drink.
Not known.
Leaves good for thatch; leafstalks used as those of Raphia
Fruit
Fruit

tcedigera.

Lepidocaryum
tenue

Caranai do Mato. None.

PALM TREES

128
Botanical Name.

Native Name.

Uses.

Geonoraa

multifl ora

pamcuhgera
1

...

nK lTr;"l
Ubim
de Coti-

Ubhmana

reetifolia

These species and others allied all

have the leaves more or less
USed f r thatchin *
l

Manicaria

Bussu

saccifera

Leaves the best for thatching;

spathe for caps, wrappers, &c.

Desmoncus
macroacanthus. Jacitara

Bark makes "tipitis" or

elastic

squeezing
grated mandiocca.
cylinders

Bactris
pectinata

for

the

Iu

elatior

Marayarana
Marayarana

n.s

Unknown..

not to be applied to any parti-

Iu
Iu
Iu
Maraja
Iu

cular uses.

n.s

macrocarpa

...

tenuis
simplicifrons

...

maraja
integrifolia

These

little

prickly

palms seem

Fruit eatable.

None.

Guilielma
speciosa

Pupunha

Fruit very good and nutritious

wood very hard, black and durable.

Acrocomia
lasiospatha

Mucuja

Fruit eatable.

Murumuru

Cattle eat fruit.

Astrocaryum

murumuru

gynacanthum ... Mumbaca

None.

Tucum
Tucuma

Leaf-fibres for cordage.

Fruit eatable.

jauari

Jauari

aculeatum

Maraya

acaule

Iu
Iu

Nuts for lace-bobbin heads.

None.
Others with the same
name have eatable fruit.
Bark of leaf-stalks for baskets.

vulgare

tucuma

humile
Attalea
speciosa
excelsa
spectabilis

Uauassu

Fruit eatable.

Curua

Leaves for thatch.

Fruit burnt for smoking rubber.
Leaves for thatch.

Inaja

Fruit eatable.

Coqueiro

The Cocoa-nut

Urucuri

Maximiliana
regia

Cocos
nucifera

fruit eatable.

OF THE AMAZON.

The genera
six in

number.

in

America are

to the

Worlds, as shown in the following

it,

while only four are

List of the

Name

of Genus.

thirty-

Thirty-two of these are entirely con-

common

fined to

New

Palms found

of

129

list

Old and

American Genera of Palms.

PRINTED BY TAYLOR AND FRANCIS,

RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET.

<SMM

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