DR. R. SPRUCE ON EQUATORIAL-AMERICAIS" PALMS. 77 



of Mauritia and its subgenera Oroplioma and Lepidocaryttm^, 

 But beyond the great forest, on the campos of Brazil and the 

 llanos of Venezuela, most of the fan-leaved Palms have naked 

 fruits, and belong to Copernicia and other genera of Coryphince ; 

 and a little further to north and south the Mauritias fail alto- 

 gether, although fan-leaved Palms continue to be found far into 

 North America, and southward into Paraguay. 



Tiie most universally distributed palm throughout the basins 

 of the Amazon and Orinoco, or, say, from the Andes of Peru and 

 New Granada to the shores of the Atlantic, is undoubtedly Mau- 

 ritia Jlexuosa (L.); and there are few palms about which so much 

 has already been written. The earliest American voyagers and 

 missionaries noted its abundance in the delta of the Orinoco, and 

 how, in the season of inundations, the natives dwelt on stages 

 supported by the growing trunks of the Mauritia, whose fruit 

 afforded their chief food ; so that to them it was truly tlie 

 " Arbol de la Vida," or Tree of 'life. 



Every reader of Thomson knows the lines, — 



" Wide o'er his isles the branching Oronociue 

 Kolls a browTi dehige, and the native drives 

 To dwell aloft on life-sufficing trees, 

 At once his dome, his robe, his food, his arms"t. 



At the mouths of all the rivers between the Orinoco and Ama- 

 zon the Mauritia abounds, but does not seem to reach much 

 further southward along the coast of Brazil. I can now say, 

 from personal observation, that it extends westward right across 

 the continent to the first undulations of the Andes, where it 

 fails at "from 2000 to 3000 feet, and that it is equally common 

 in the Subandme and in the Submaritime regions, as well as 

 along the whole course of the Amazon and Orinoco. 



At the mouth of the Amazon, the Maicritia abounds most on 

 the shores of low flat islands, and about swampy lakes. It is 

 common all the way up the river on low shores, where it stretches 

 in long avenues — and at the debouchures of the tributary rivers 

 and creeks, where it forms groves. 



At the opposite extremity of the Amazon valley, on the river 

 Pastasa, the greater part of whose course lies a little without or 

 eastward of the first ranges of the Andes, we find long strips 

 of the same Mauritia stretching parallel to the river, and occu- 



* See in the sequel for a further account of these Palms, 

 t * Seasons/ Summer, L 833-7. 



