DR. R. SPRUCE ON EQUATORTAL-AMERICAT^ PALMS. 73 



Martius's original species of Leopoldinia (Z. piclcJira) lias its 

 main site on tlie black-water streams of the Granite Eegion, but 

 extends beyond it down to the mouth of the Eio Negro, and is 

 found also on the Trombetas, Tapajoz, and other rivers of clear 

 water, wherever there are sandy beaches overlying hard rock. I 

 think, however, I am justified in claiming the granite as the 

 original site of the entire genus Leopoldinia^ seeing that there it 

 abounds most, both in species and individuals. 



The elegant little scaly-fruited palms that constitute the genus 

 Lepidocaryum of Martins seem also to have originated in the 

 Granite Region, not on the river-banks, but in the caatinga forests, 

 and to have spread southwards, wherever they found a similar 

 habitat, across the Amazon to some way up the river Madeira. 



§ 4. Palms oj the Subandine Region. 



The Siibandine region is remarJcahle for heing tlie Tieadquarters 

 of palms tvith broad premorsely-cut^ and often laciniate leaflets, with 

 which are nearly always associated a stem supported on an emersed 

 cone of roots that resembles the spokes of a half-opened umbrella, 

 both which features attain their greatest development in the genus 

 Iriartea^. 



In the hill- forests of Maynas, at from two to three thousand feet 



elevation, Nunnezharia fr ag r ans , li. ct P. {Cliamcedorea^ Willd.) 

 a delicate little palm, with stems no thicker than reeds, simple 

 forked jagged leaves, and orange- coloured flowers, that exhale their 

 rich and peculiar odour for years after being dried — forms no 



■ _ 



small proportion of the undergrowth. 



Still more noteworthy is the noble and singular genus Wettinia^ 

 whereof the first species {W, regicC) was found by Poppig on the 

 upper part of the Huallaga, and the second {W, Magnensis) by 

 myself in the lower Maynensian Andes, whence I have traced it 

 along the roots of the Equatorial Andes to the upper regions of 

 the Pastasa and Napo. Its chief home is in the lowest skirts of 

 the mountains, and it very rarely descends into the Amazonian 

 plain. Its striking features are the root-cone, the long equably 



humidity; so that the trees are always clad with verdure; and in this respect 

 they differ much from the "caatingas" of Central Erazil (described by St.-IIilaire), 

 where most of the trees lose their loaves in the cool dry season (June to Sep- 

 tember). 



* See Wallace's * Palms of the Amazon,' plates 12-15. 



