Chapter III: Part 3

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

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

Pl. XXXV.

W. Fitch lith. Ford & West Imp.

BACTRIS INTEGRIFOLIA. Ht. 9 Ft.
]

PLATE XXXV.
BACTRIS INTEGRIFOLIA, n. sp.

Iú, _Lingoa Geral_.

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

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

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

Genus GUILIELMA, _Martius_.

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

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

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

Pl. XXXVI.

W. Fitch lith. Ford & West Imp.

GUILIELMA SPECIOSA. Ht. 60 Ft.
]

PLATE XXXVI.
GUILIELMA SPECIOSA, _Martius_.

Pupúnha, _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. It reaches sixty feet in height, and grows quite erect, though in exposed situations it becomes curved and waving. The leaves are very numerous, terminal, pinnate and drooping, forming a nearly spherical crown to the stem; and the leaflets growing out from the midrib in various directions, 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 Bussú, but as the age of the tree increases they break up into regular narrow leaflets.

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

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

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

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

The wood of this tree when old and black is exceedingly hard, turning the edge of any ordinary axe. When descending the River Uaupes in April 1852, I had a number of parrots whose objections to any restraint upon their liberty caused me much trouble. Their first cage was of wicker, and in a couple of hours they had all set themselves at liberty. Then tough green wood was tried, but the same time only was required to gnaw that through. Thick bars of deal were bitten through in a single night, so I then tried the hard wood of the Pashiúba. This checked them for a short time, but in less than a week by continual gnawing they had chipped these away and again escaped. I now began to despair; no iron for bars was to be procured and my resources were exhausted, when one of my Indians recommended me to try Pupúnha, assuring me that if their beaks were of iron they could not bite that. A tree was accordingly cut down and bars made from it, and I had the satisfaction of seeing that their most persevering efforts now made little impression.

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

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

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

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

Genus ACROCOMIA, _Martius_.

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

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

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

Pl. XXXVII.

W. Fitch lith. Ford & West Imp.

ACROCOMIA LASIOSPATHA. Ht. 40 Ft.
]

PLATE XXXVII.
ACROCOMIA LASIOSPATHA, _Martius_.

Mucujá, _Lingoa Geral_.

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

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

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

Several young plants of this and a species closely resembling it, the _A. sclerocarpa_, are growing in the Palm House at Kew, and in the Museum at the same place are specimens of the stem and fruit sent by Mr. Bates and myself from Pará.

Martius mentions the _A. sclerocarpa_ only as being found at Pará, but his description of the other species agrees best with the tree here figured. The two, however, seem very closely allied, if they are really distinct species.

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

Genus ASTROCARYUM, _Meyer_.

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

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

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

Pl. XXXVIII.

W. Fitch lith. Ford & West Imp.

ASTROCARYUM MURUMURU. Ht. 20 Ft.
]

PLATE XXXVIII.
ASTROCARYUM MURUMURÚ, _Martius_.

Murumurú, _Lingoa Geral_.

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

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

On the Upper Amazon cattle eat the fruits of the Murumurú, wandering about for days in the forest to procure it. The hard stony seeds pass through their bodies undigested and become thickly scattered over the pastures adjoining the houses. They are so hard that it is almost impossible to break them, except by a very hard blow with a large hammer. The internal albumen or kernel is also excessively hard, nearly approaching to vegetable ivory. Yet pigs are very fond of these little cocoa-nuts, and on one estate on the Upper Amazon where I was staying, they had scarcely anything else to eat during a part of the year but those which had passed through the stomachs of the cows. They might constantly be seen cracking the shell with their powerful jaws, and grinding up the hard kernels, on which the teeth of few other animals could make any impression. They not only existed on this food, but in some cases got actually fat upon it. The black vultures (_Cathartes_) occasionally eat the outer covering of this and other palm fruits, when hard-pushed for food.

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

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

Pl. XXXIX.

W. Fitch lith. Ford & West Imp.

ASTROCARYUM GYNACANTHUM. Ht. 15 Ft.
]

PLATE XXXIX.
ASTROCARYUM GYNACANTHUM, _Martius_.

Mumbáca, _Lingoa Geral_.

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

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

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

Pl. XL.

W. Fitch lith. Ford & West Imp.

ASTROCARYUM VULGARE. Ht. 50 Ft.
]

PLATE XL.
ASTROCARYUM VULGARE, _Martius_.

Tucúm, _Lingoa Geral_.

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

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

Every part of this palm bristles with sharp spines so as to render it difficult to handle any portion of it; yet it is of great importance to the Indians, and in places where it is not indigenous, is cultivated with care in their mandiocca fields and about their houses, along with the “Pupúnha” and other fruit trees. Yet they use neither the fruit, the stem, nor the full-grown leaves. It is only the unopened leaves which they make use of to manufacture cordage, superior in fineness, strength and durability to that procured from the _Mauritia flexuosa_. They strip off the epidermis and prepare it in the same manner as described in the account of that species, but while the “mirití” is principally used for hammocks, the “tucúm” serves for bow strings, fishing-nets and other purposes where fineness, combined with strength, is required. Some of the tribes on the Upper Amazon, however, make all their hammocks of “tucúm,” which renders it probable that the _Mauritia flexuosa_ does not grow there.

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

Dr. Martius has mistaken the species from which this cordage is manufactured, stating it to be the “Tucumá,” which, though very nearly allied, is never used for the purpose. The close resemblance of the native names is probably what led to the mistake, though they are never confounded by the Brazilians.

The “tucúm” is found on the “terra firme” or dry forest land of the Amazon and Rio Negro. It is growing in the Palm House at Kew.

Pl. XLI.

W. Fitch lith. Ford & West Imp.

ASTROCARYUM TUCUMA. Ht. 40 Ft.
]

PLATE XLI.
ASTROCARYUM TUCUMA, _Martius_.

Tucumá, _Lingoa Geral_.

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

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

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

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

Pl. XLII.

W. Fitch lith. Ford & West Imp.

ASTROCARYUM JAUARI Ht. 40 Ft.
]

PLATE XLII.
ASTROCARYUM JAUARI, _Martius_.

Jauarí, _Lingoa Geral_.

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

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

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

This species is unknown in the neighbourhood of Pará and on the Lower Amazon. It first occurs near Villa Nova, about five hundred miles up the river, where the tidal rise and fall of the water ceases and the annual floods rise to a considerable height. From this point upwards it is very abundant, growing everywhere on the margins of the rivers, in places which are for six or eight months in the year under water. It is never found beyond the limits of the floods, and in travelling up the Rio Negro it is for hundreds of miles the only species of _Astrocaryum_ met with.

Pl. XLIII.

W. Fitch lith. Ford & West Imp.

ASTROCARYUM ACULEATUM Ht. 20 Ft.
]

PLATE XLIII.
ASTROCARYUM ACULEATUM? _Meyer._

Marayá, _Lingoa Geral_.

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

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

This tree agrees pretty well with Dr. Martius’ description of _A. aculeatum_. It grows in the virgin forest of the Upper Rio Negro.

Pl. XLIV.

W. Fitch lith. Ford & West Imp.

ASTROCARYUM ACAULE Ht. 9 Ft.
]

PLATE XLIV.
ASTROCARYUM ACAULE, _Martius_.

Iú, _Lingoa Geral_.

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

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

The rind of the leaf-stalks of this palm is used by the Indians for making baskets. It grows in the dry Catinga forests of the Upper Rio Negro, often covering large tracts of ground. It has altogether a rather repulsive and inelegant appearance.

A fruit is shown on the Plate of the natural size, and a spadix reduced showing the spathe bent over it.

Pl. XLV.

W. Fitch lith. Ford & West Imp.

ASTROCARYUM HUMILE. Ht. 9 Ft.
]

PLATE XLV.
ASTROCARYUM HUMILE, n. sp.

Iú, _Lingoa Geral_.

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

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

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

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

Genus ATTALEA, _Humboldt_.

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

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

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

Pl. XLVI.

W. Fitch lith. Ford & West Imp.

ATTALEA SPECIOSA Ht. 60 Ft.
]

PLATE XLVI.
ATTALEA SPECIOSA, _Martius_.

Uauassú, _Lingoa Geral_.

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

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

The foliage of this tree is very extensively used for thatching. The young plants produce very large leaves before the stem is formed, and it is in this state that they are generally used. The unopened leaves from the centre are preferred, as, though they require some preparation, they produce a more uniform thatch. The leaf is shaken till it falls partially open, and then each leaflet is torn at the base so as to remain hanging by its midrib only, which is however quite sufficient to secure it firmly. They thus hang all at right angles to the midrib of the leaf, which admits of their being laid in a very regular manner on the rafters. They are generally known as “palha branca” or “white thatch,” from the pale yellow colour of the unopened leaves, and are considered the best covering for houses in places where Bussú cannot be obtained.

This species grows on the dry forest lands of the Upper Amazon. On the Rio Negro a stemless species called “Curuá” (_Attalea spectabilis_) is found and is often used for thatching. On the Lower Amazon and in the neighbourhood of Pará the _Attalea excelsa_ is not uncommon. It is a handsome lofty species which grows on lands flooded at high tides, and is called by the natives Urucurí. The fruit of this tree is burnt, and the smoke is used to black the newly made india-rubber. Martius says that the fruit of the _A. speciosa_ is used for this purpose, but that species is not found in the principal rubber districts, while the _A. excelsa_ is abundant there.

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

Plate III. fig. 1. is a fruit of _Attalea spectabilis_ of the natural size.

Genus MAXIMILIANA, _Martius_.

Some spadices with only male flowers, others with . male and female flowers on the same tree. Spathes large, complete, woody. Flowers with bracts. Male flowers with three or six stamens, and with a minute rudimentary pistil. Female flowers with a short style and three stigmas, and rudimentary stamens forming a membranaceous cup.

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

Only three species of this genus are known, all very handsome plants. One is a native of the West India Islands, one of Brazil, and a third is common in the Amazon district.

Pl. XLVII.

W. Fitch lith. Ford & West Imp.

MAXIMILIANA REGIA Ht. 80 Ft.
]

PLATE XLVII.
MAXIMILIANA REGIA, _Martius_.

Inajá, _Lingoa Geral_.

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

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

The leaves of this tree are truly gigantic. I have measured specimens which have been cut by the Indians fifty feet long, and these did not contain the entire petiole, nor were they of the largest size. Owing, however, to the loose irregular distribution of the leaflets, they do not produce such an effect of great size as those of the Jupati, which are more regular. The great woody spathes are used by hunters to cook meat in, as with water in them they stand the fire well. They are also used as baskets for carrying earth, and sometimes for cradles. The fruits are often eaten by the Indians, and are particularly attractive to monkeys and to some fruit-eating birds.

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

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

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

Genus COCOS, _Linnæus_.

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

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

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

Pl. XLVIII.

W. Fitch lith. Ford & West Imp.

COCOS NUCIFERA. Ht. 60 Ft.
]

PLATE XLVIII.
COCOS NUCIFERA, _Linnæus_.

Coqueiro, _Portuguese_.
The Cocoa-nut.

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

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

This tree is not a native of South America, but as it is generally cultivated in every part of the tropics, I have given a figure of it. Its peculiar characteristic is the rigidity of its leaves, which curve or droop very slightly, and the leaflets spread out with remarkable flatness and regularity. The stem also is rather massive in accordance with the immense weight of fruit which it produces, and the whole tree, though exceedingly handsome, has not that light and feathery appearance which it is often represented as possessing. It is not impossible, however, that it may have acquired by its naturalization in America an aspect differing somewhat from its characteristic features when growing on the sea-shore, on the coral islands of India and the Pacific.

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

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

LIST OF THE PALMS DESCRIBED IN THIS WORK, WITH THEIR NATIVE NAMES AND USES.

_Botanical Name._ _Native Name._ _Uses._

Leopoldinia

pulchra Jará Stem used for fencing, rafters,
&c.

major Jará assú Fruit for making salt.

piassaba Piassába Fibre for cordage, brooms, &c.;
leaves for thatching; fruit
eatable.

Euterpe

oleracea Assaí Fruit for making a drink; stem for
rafters, &c.

catinga Assaí de Catinga Fruit for making a drink.

Œnocarpus

baccaba Baccába Fruit makes a drink and oil;
leaves for thatching.

batawá Patawá Fruit makes a drink; spinous
processes used for making
arrows.

disticha Baccába Leaves for thatching.

minor Baccába miri Fruit makes a drink.

Iriartea

exorhiza Pashiúba Stem split for floors and
ceilings, &c.; air-roots for
graters.

ventricosa Pashiúba Stem split for lances, harpoons,
barriguda floors, &c.; swollen part of
stem for canoes.

setigera Pashiúba miri Stem hollowed for making blowtubes
or Gravatánas.

Raphia

tædigera Jupatí Leaf-stalks split for making
boxes, partitioning houses,
doors, &c.

Mauritia

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

aculeata Caranaí Fruit makes a drink.

gracilis Caranaí Fruit makes a drink.

pumila Caranaí Not known.

caraná Caraná Leaves good for thatch;
leaf-stalks used as those of
_Raphia tædigera_.

Lepidocaryum

tenue Caranaí do Mato None.

Geonoma

multiflora Ubimrána These species and others allied
all have the leaves more or less
used for thatching.

paniculigera Ubim de Cotiwiya

rectifolia Ubimrána

Manicaria

saccifera Bussú Leaves the best for thatching;

spathe for caps, wrappers &c.

Desmoncus

macroacanthus Jacitára Bark makes “tipitis” or elastic

cylinders for squeezing the

grated mandiocca.

Bactris

pectinata Iú These little prickly palms seem
not to be applied to any
particular uses.

n.s. Marayarána

elatior Marayarána

n.s. Unknown

macrocarpa Iú

tenuis Iú

simplicifrons Iú

maraja Marajá Fruit eatable.

integrifolia Iú None.

Guilielma

speciosa Pupúnha Fruit very good and nutritious;
wood very hard, black and
durable.

Acrocomia

lasiospatha Mucujá Fruit eatable.

Astrocaryum

murumurú Murumurú Cattle eat fruit.

gynacanthum Mumbáca None.

vulgare Tucúm Leaf-fibres for cordage.

tucumá Tucumá Fruit eatable.

jauarí Jauarí Nuts for lace-bobbin heads.

aculeatum Marayá None. Others with the same name
have eatable fruit.

acaule Iú Bark of leaf-stalks for baskets.

humile Iú Fruit eatable.

Attalea

speciosa Uauassú Leaves for thatch.

excelsa Urucurí Fruit burnt for smoking rubber.

spectabilis Curúa Leaves for thatch.

Maximiliana

regia Inajá Fruit eatable.

Cocos

nucifera Coqueiro The Cocoa-nut; fruit eatable.

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

LIST OF THE AMERICAN GENERA OF PALMS. ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Name of Genus. No. of species Species found in Species of mentioned in this America. American Genera Work. in the Old World. ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Chamedorea 0 23 0 Hyospathe 0 1 0 Morenia 0 2 0 Kunthia 0 1 0 Leopoldinia 3 4 0 Euterpe 3 12 0 Œnocarpus 4 6 0 Oreodoxia 0 6 0 Reinhardtia 0 1 0 Iriartea 4 9 0 Ceroxylon 0 3 0 Raphia 1 1 2 Mauritia 7 8 0 Lepidocaryum 1 2 0 Geonoma 3 33 0 Manicaria 1 1 0 Copernicia 0 6 0 Brahea 0 2 0 Sabal 0 9 0 Trithrinax 0 2 0 Chamærops 0 2 6 Thrinax 0 8 0 Desmoncus 1 14 0 Bactris 9 46 0 Guilielma 1 3 0 Martinezia 0 4 0 Acrocomia 1 8 0 Astrocaryum 8 17 0 Elœis 0 1 1 Attalea 3 16 0 Maximiliana 1 3 0 Orbignia 0 3 0 Syagrus 0 5 0 Diplothemium 0 5 0 Jubæa 0 1 0 Cocos 1 17 1 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Totals 52 285 10 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

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

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TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES

1. Silently corrected obvious typographical errors and variations in spelling. 2. Retained archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings as printed. 3. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.