OF SOME AMAZON TREES. 5 



the smash, often obliged me to beat a retreat before I had time 

 even to gather the number of specimens I needed. 



In the allied family of Laurels an approach to whorled branch- 

 ing is occasionally seen ; and in two species the branches are ex- 

 actly verticillate. In a Lauracea gathered near Tarapoto (PI. Am. 

 5884), the branches grow in whorls of five ; and an Oreodaphne 

 (PI. Am. 3081) from the Bio Negro has the branches in threes, 

 exactly as in Myristica debilis. This Oreodaphne has the stem from 

 12 to 20 feet long, no thicker than the finger, and decidedly 

 twining among the adjacent bushes, in which respect it shows a 

 curious approach to Cassytha. 



In a species of Persea cultivated at Tarapoto for the sake of its 

 fruit, the branches are approximated, usually in fives (whereof 

 three are frequently stouter than the rest), so that at a distance 

 they appear whorled ; for though the branches in each cluster are 

 from 1 inch to 3 inches apart, the clusters themselves are 2 feet 

 or more asunder. In most Lauracece, however, the branches are 

 obscurely or not at all whorled, and they ascend at various angles ; 

 so that it is rare to see, among trees of this family, any approach to 

 the symmetrical contour of the Myristicce. 



Another family, Monimiacea, whose affinity to Myristicece in 

 structure and aromatic properties is sufficiently obvious, shows 

 also some correspondence in its mode of branching. In one species, 

 Citrosma myristicoidea (PI. Am. 4907), the branches are 5-nate, 

 exactly as in the Myristicce. In another Citrosma (PI. Am. 3965), 

 the young plant bears a whorl of five branches at the apex, below 

 which is produced a vertical innovation, bearing at its summit a 

 similar whorl, and so on ; so that what may be called a verticillato- 

 proliferous ramification is generated. Some approach to one or 

 other of these modes of branching is traceable in all the species of 

 Citrosma known to me. 



The Anonacece, with much affinity to Myristicece, and a very 

 similar habit, have also pinnate branches and coriaceous distichous 

 leaves ; but the branches are solitary, not whorled. In the Quat- 

 terice, where the branches usually vary in direction, the tree takes 

 an irregular form ; but in some Xylopiae, where the branches are 

 parallel and nearly horizontal, the trees do not differ much in form 

 from the Myristicce : generally they are more pointed (pyramidal) 

 than the latter, whose symmetrical crown is more or less rounded 

 at the apex. Xylopia Spruceana, Bth. PI. Am., from the Casi- 

 quiare, a tree of from 20 to 50 feet high, remarkable for its cedar- 

 like aspect, has the branches elongate, pinnate, sometimes slightly 



