MR. R. SPRUCE ON LEOPOLDINIA PIASSABA. 61 
the.Canton del Rio Negro. Whether this were true; or whether 
the Portuguese at an earlier date extended this branch of industry 
beyond the limits of their own territory, it is certain that, in so 
much as I have yet seen of the Peruvian and Quitenian Andes, 
rope of every kind, whether of Agave, Yucca, or palm fibre, or of 
cotton, is made purely by hand. 
To Mr. Wallace's interesting account of the mode of collecting 
the Piassaba-fibre I have nothing to add, save that, as in the young 
plants, from which it is solely obtained, the beard is not always 
completely separated into fibres, but bangs down in riband-like 
strips, it is necessary before cutting it off to comb it out by means 
of à rude comb of two or three pointed sticks or long palm- 
prickles. 
Besides the use which is made of the beard of the Piassaba, the 
pulpy envelope of the sarcocarp in the ripe fruit is said to yield 
the most delicious of all palm drinks, bearing great resemblance 
to cream both in colour and taste. I have not had the good 
fortune to taste it, or even to see the ripe fruit, which comes into 
season at midsummer, but, like the fruit of most other trees, is 
Subject to seasons or periods of intermittence, when little or no 
fruit is matured. In 1853, the fruits all fell off when green. In 
the summer of 1854, I was prostrated by remittent fever at San 
Fernando de Atabapo. In the month of October of the same 
year I made an excursion of three days from San Carlos into the 
forest at the back of Solano, on the Casiquiare, with the express 
object of gathering flowers of the Piassaba, for which I was ex- 
actly in the season ; but, singularly enough, on four trees I caused 
to be cut down there were only male flowers; and the heavy rain, 
with the sloppy state of the forest, compelled me to desist from 
further search. In the following November, a few days previous 
to my final departure from Venezuela, I visited another locality 
for the palm, on the Guainia, where I collected the fruit, which 
was almost fully formed externally, though the nucleus was still 
in aliquid state. In this place nearly all the Piassabas seen were 
monoicous. It seems, therefore, that the fruit takes from October 
to June (both inclusive), or nine months, to ripen. Some palms 
require a whole year, so that I have not seldom gathered ripe fruit 
and flowers on the same tree. m . 
The other species of Leopoldinia have a thickish fleshy rind to 
the fruit, but it is so bitter as not to be eatable. | 
Another bearded palm is known to me, which has a consider- 
