84 DR. E. SPllUCE ON EQUATORIAL-AMEHICAN PALMS. 



which they are seen towering over all neighbouring trees. Erom 

 these, and many other instances, I conclude that the real patri- 

 archs of the primeval forest range from 120 to 200 feet high. 



The tallest palms I ever cut down were of three species — Mau- 

 ritiajlexicosa, Etcterpe oleracea^ and Iriartea ventricosa ; the entire 

 height of each of which was about 80 feet. But my object being 

 to obtain specimens of the leaves, flowers, and fruit, I naturally 

 selected the most accessible, not the loftiest, and in every case I 

 saw palms of the same species, standing near, fully half as high 

 again as the one I had cut down. Altitudes of the loftiest of 

 these palms, and of (Enocarpus Bataud, taken with a sextant, never 

 exceeded 120 feet. Cocos nucifera rarely exceeded 100 feet ; and 

 persons who have seen this palm also in the East assure me that 

 in the New World its dimensions fall much below what it attains 



in the Old. 



Comparing these two groups of data, it will be seen how very 

 rarely in Amazon forests palms can overtop and '^ spread their 

 green branches " above all surrounding trees. But if neither 

 trees nor Palms grow so exceedingly lofty there as they do in 

 some other parts of the world, there can be little dispute that 

 they excel those of all other regions in beauty and infinite variety. 

 To fully appreciate this, the botanist should travel, as I have done, 

 from the mouth of the Amazon to its sources in the summits of 

 the Andes, 



** Through palmy shades and aromatic woods, 

 That grace the plains, invest the peopled hills, 

 And up the more than Alpine mountains wave." 



Thomson, Summer, 1. 703-5. 



CHAPTER III. 



OEHTORA 



§ 1. Palms have heen divided into Five Tribes, of rather indefinite 



character *. 



For the purpose of describing the few Palms of mj own gather- 

 ing, it will not be necessary to take the whole Order into consi- 

 deration, nor to attempt to remodel existing genera and their distri- 

 bution into Tribes ; but I will string together a few observations 



^ Confer Kunth, * Enumeratio Plantarum/ vol. iii. p. 168 et seq. ; Endli- 

 cber, 'Genera Plantarura/ pp. ii et 244; Martius, * Genera et Species Pal- 

 maruni.' 



