DR. B. SPEUCE OS EQUATOEIAL-AMEBICAN PALMS. 75 



downwards to its mouth, where it grows quite as abundantly as 

 in the Andes. 



The Ivory-palms {PhytelepTias) are also truly Subandine, 

 abounding in the roots of the Andes, and descending along the 

 course of the rivers in some cases a few hundred miles ; but as 

 they belong rather to Pandanaceae than to Palmacese, I shall treat 

 of them separately in an appendix. 



An extract from my diary, under date May, 1857, describing 

 the palm-vegetation of a bit of forest on the river Bombonasa, in 

 the roots of the equatorial Andes, lat. 1|° S., alt. about 1200 feet, 

 will give an idea of the grouping of Subandine palms. 



"The most abundant palms were Mauritia flexuosa, Wettinia 

 Mai/nensis, Iriartea exorrMza^ and ventricosa, and (Enocm^us 

 Bataud, Euterpe oleracea was not unfrequent on the very mar- 

 gin of the river ; and in the depths of the forest the smaller Ivory- 

 palm {^Pliytelephas microcarpa) formed groves, sometimes growing 

 along with Iriartea ventricom. Another palm w^as a large Astro- 

 caryiim (A, v uJ f/ari -pToximum), The undergrowth included seve- 

 ral small palms : — Bactris humilia, pinnis paucis longe cuspidatis ; 

 GeonoiiKB duse, altera foliis basi rectangulari-cimeatis apice emar- 

 ginato-bijfidis, G. Forteance Yalde similis, etc,; besides som^ Cyclan- 

 these, sucli as DiscantJius odoratus and various Carludovicce. On the 

 steep alluvial banks grew two other Carludovicce^ one of them the 

 " Bombonaje " (C. pahnatcB aff.), of which straw hats are made." 



It would be very interesting to compare the palms of the eastern 

 slopes with those of the western slopes of the Equatorial Andes, 

 separated as they are by a double range of lofty ridges and snowy 

 peaks ; but there do not yet exist materials for it. In ray journey 

 down the western side of the Andes, all I could do was to note that 

 palms were less abundant than on the eastern side, that they con- 

 sisted apparently of the same genera, Ceroxylon^ Geonoma^ Euterpe^ 

 BactriSy Attalea, &c., but of species entirely distinct. Even the 

 Ivory-palm {^Phyteleplias cequatorialis) that abounds on the west- 

 ern side of the Andes proves to be quite different from both the 

 species on the eastern side, as I shall show more fully in the 

 sequel. 



§ 5. Palms of the Amazon Region. 



The Amazon Kegion proper abounds in Palms quite as much 

 as the regions that border it on all sides, but seems to have 

 derived most of its species from them — its Iriarteas from the 



