DR. K. SPBUCE ON EQUATOKIAL-AMERICAN PALMS. G9 



It may serve to foreshow the vast number of specific forms that 

 probably yet remain to be detected in the forests of the Amazon, 

 especially among the smaller palms, if I mention that although 

 the river Japura, explored by Dr, Martins, and the Eio Negro, 

 where most of my own and Mr. Wallace's palms were obtained, 

 are nearly parallel and not very far apart, and although I have re- 

 peatedly compared my specimens with the descriptions of Martiua 

 and Wallace, yet, out of fourteen species of G-eonoma gathered hy 

 myself I have teen able to identify only two tvith Martiu$*s^ and 

 out of fifteen species of Bactris only three. Of the latter genus Mr. 

 Wallace has figured six new species, whereof one seems certainly 



the same as one of mine ; but the other five do not exactly agree 

 with any that I gathered. 



CHAPTER II. 



THE DISTETBTJTIOK OF PALMS IX THE AMAZON VALLEY*. 



§ 1. The Five Palm-Itegions of the Amazon Valley, 



The great Amazonian Forest, extending northward to tlie cata- 

 racts of the Orinoco, in Venezuela, southward far into the centre 

 of Brazil, and westward almost to the very crest of the Andes, is 

 entirely included in Martius's " Chief Palm-Zone " (10^ iS'.-lO^ S. 

 lat.), and as respects its Palm-vegetation may be divided into the 



following regions : — 



I. The Coast' or Submaritime Heyion, viz. the country adjacent 

 to the mouth of the great river, both terra firma and islands, as 

 far inland (or westward) as there are tidal creeks and the sea- 

 breezes have a manifest influence on the ve^^etation. This region 



ought to include the whole of the Guayana coast, to the mouth of 

 the Orinoco (and even the West-India Islands?). 



II. The Granite Region of the Casiciuiari. I call it by this 



name because while it belongs equally to the Eio Negro and to 

 the Orinoco, extending down the former nearly to lat. 2° S., and 

 down the latter to and beyond the cataracts (lat. 6°^.), the Casi- 

 quiari is its middle term, from which it stretches eastward through 



Ecing unable for the present to examine all the materials that exist in our 

 herbaria and museums for a complete account of the geographical distribution 

 of Amazon palms, especially as compared with the rest of the world, I propose 

 to defer that task to a future day, and shall limit myself now to sketching some 

 general featiu-cs of the palm -vegetation of the Amazon valley, looked athy itself, 

 and with little reference to that of other countries. 



