Alfred Russel Wallace

“ In these places there is no underwood 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,—a vast natural temple which does not yield in grandeur and sublimity to those of Palmyra or Athens. ”

“ An entire leaf is a load for a man.
The spadices grow out from among the leaves; they are very large, pinnately branched and horizontal or drooping. The fruit is spherical, the size of a small 48apple and covered with rather small, smooth, brown, reticulated scales, beneath which is a thin coating of pulp. A spadix loaded with fruit is of immense weight, often more than two men could carry between them.
The leaves, fruit and stem of this tree are all useful to the natives of the interior. The leaf-stalks are applied to the same purposes as those of the species last described, the Jupatí. ”

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

“ The Indians collect the fruit in large quantities, and by burning and washing extract a floury substance, which they use as a substitute for salt when they cannot procure that article. They assert positively that the smaller species of Jará will not yield the same product; but perhaps this may be only because the fruit is less abundant, and they do not take the trouble to collect it.
Coarse Portugal salt is used in the Rio Negro, and among the Indians in the upper part of the river serves as a circulating medium, about a pound of it being reckoned equivalent to a day’s work. ”

“ Boys climb up the trees to get it, with a cord round the ankles (as shown on the Plate) , and with its own leaves make a neatly interlaced basket to carry it home. From the great island of Marajó, its igaripés [1] and marshes, from the rivers Guamá and Mojú, from the thousand islands in the river, and from the vast palm swamps in the depths of the forest, baskets of the fruit are brought every morning to the city, where half the population look to the Assaí to supply a daily meal, and hundreds are said to make it, with farinha, almost their main subsistence. ”

“ In the Old World, the rich islands of the Eastern Archipelago produce the greatest number of Palms; in the New, the great valleys of the Amazon and Orinoco on the main land, are most prolific.
In proportion to its extent, America is the most productive palm country; for while the Old World, including Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Eastern Archipelago, with New Holland and all the Pacific Islands, contain 307 species, the New World or America alone has 275 different kinds. ”

“ This species grows in the Catinga forests of the Upper Rio Negro and on the margins of small streams, climbing over trees and hanging in festoons between them, throwing out its armed leaves on every side to catch the unwary traveller. How often will they seize the insect-net of the ardent Entomologist just as he is making a dash at some rare butterfly, or fasten in his jacket or shirt-sleeve, or pull the cap from his head! ”

“ But few white men can penetrate for miles along a little winding stream such as is here described, where not a broken twig or cut branch is found to show that a human being has ever passed before. Thus does the thorny “jacitára” 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 Palm House at Kew.
A fruit is represented on the Plate of the natural size. ”

“ But the most remarkable form of leaf is the fan-shaped, which characterizes a considerable number of species, and gives them such a completely different aspect, as to render it, to ordinary observers, the most palpable feature dividing the whole family into two distinct groups. ”

“ The fruits are generally small, when compared with the size of the trees; the common cocoa-nut being one of the largest in the whole family. The kernel of many is too hard to be eaten, and the outer covering is often fibrous or woody; but in others the seeds are covered with a pulpy or farinaceous mass, which in most cases furnishes a grateful and nutritious food.
The purposes to which the different parts of Palms are applied are very various, the fruit, the leaves, and the stem all having many uses in the different species. ”

“ 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. ”

“ This species is very abundant in the neighbourhood of Pará, and even in the city itself. It grows in swamps flooded by the high tides,—never on dry land. Its straight cylindrical stem is sometimes used for poles and rafters; but the tree is generally considered too valuable to be cut down for such purposes. A very favourite drink is made from the ripe fruit, and daily 24vended in the streets of Pará. Indian and negro girls may be constantly seen walking about with small earthen pots on their heads, uttering at intervals a shrill cry of Assaí——í. ”

“ 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. ”

“ In each of these cases a species is selected better adapted than the rest for the peculiar purpose to which it is applied, and often having several different uses which no other plant can serve as well, so that some little idea may be formed of how important to the South American Indian must be these noble trees, which supply so many daily wants, giving him his house, his food, and his weapons. ”

“ When birds are feeding at the top of a lofty tree where the result of a gun-shot would be doubtful, a skilful Indian will take his station beneath it, and with a puff from his powerful lungs, will send up his little poisoned arrows with unerring aim. ”

“ Before the independence of Brazil, the Portuguese government had a factory at the mouth of the Paduarí, one of the tributaries of the Rio Negro, for the purpose of making these cables for the use of the Pará arsenal, and as a government monopoly. Till within these few years the fibre was all manufactured into cordage on 19the spot, but it is now taken down in long conical bundles for exportation from Pará to England, where it is generally used for street sweeping and house brooms, and will probably soon be applied to many other purposes. ”

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

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

“ This species is of great importance to the Indian of the Rio Negro. With its stem he constructs his “gravatána” or blowing tube, which, with the little arrows before described as made from the spines of the Patawá, forms a most valuable weapon, enabling him to bring down monkeys, parrots and curassow birds 40from their favourite stations on the summits of the loftiest trees of the forest.
When he wishes to make a “gravatána” he searches in the forest till he finds two straight and tall stems of the “Pashiúba miri” of such proportionate thicknesses that one could be contained within the other. ”

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

“ The stem of this tree being very smooth and cylindrical, 14and of a convenient length, it is much used for fencing round yards and gardens, and in the city of Barra do Rio Negro is universally employed for such purposes. The want of neatness out of doors, which is quite a characteristic of the Portuguese and Indian settlers on the Amazon, is always apparent in these fences. It is never thought worth while to cut the poles all to one length, but they are set up just as they are brought in from the forest ”

“ Four species are known, and they are all found in the same limited district near the Rio Negro, some extending to the tributaries of the Orinoco near its source, and one being found south of the Amazon nearly opposite the mouth of the Rio Negro. All however grow on the banks or in the immediate vicinity of black-ater streams, which occur more extensively in South America than in any other part of the globe. ”

“ Sago is another product of a palm, which is of comparatively little importance to us, but in the East supplies the daily food of thousands. In many parts of the Indian Archipelago it forms almost the entire subsistence of the people, taking the place of rice in Asia, corn in Europe, and maize and mandiocca in America, and 7is worthy to be classed with these the most precious gifts of nature to mankind. ”

“ It is only when the trees have reached their full height or nearly so that the swelling commences. In a forest where they abound many may be seen of a large size, but quite cylindrical from top to bottom, while others present every degree of swelling from a just perceptible thickening to a most extraordinary enlargement. The column of air-roots in this species is six or eight feet high, forming a compact conical mass, the separate roots being more slender than in the Iriartea exorhiza. ”

“ Palms present to our view the most graceful and picturesque, as well as some of the most majestic forms in the vegetable kingdom. Though many of them have a sameness of aspect, yet there is a sufficient contrast and variety of forms to render them interesting objects in the landscape. ”

“ They spring out from the stem, each one at a higher point than the last, and extend diagonally downwards till they approach the ground, when they often divide into many rootlets, each of which secures itself in the soil. As fresh ones spring out from the stem, those below become rotten and die off; and it is not an uncommon thing to see a lofty tree supported entirely by three or four roots, so that a person may walk erect beneath them, or stand with a 36tree seventy feet high growing immediately over his head. ”