PhytelephasJ] equatorial- ameeicin palms. 177 



The Tarina, as we have seen, descends from the Andes into the 

 plain along the banks of the Amazon for nearly two hundred 

 miles ; but there is a second and larger species which begins to 

 appear only at the very roots of the Peruvian Andes, and grows 

 in great abundance all along the eastern side of those mountains up 

 to 3000 feet, or perhaps higher. This is plainly the P. macro- 

 carpa of Euiz and Pavon (Syst. Veg. p. 301) ; for it agrees with 

 their description, and still bears the same native name as they 

 assign to it, " Pulupuntu " (or " Polo-ponto " in the Hispanicized 

 pronunciation). They found it chiefly on the upper tributaries of 

 the Ucayali, " in Andiura nemoribus imis et calidis versus Chan- 

 chamayo, Vitoc, Cuchero, et S. Antonium de Playa grande." It 

 is so common along the course of rocky streams in that region, 

 that I know three affluents of the Huallaga which all bear the 

 name "Polo-ponto yacu" (Ivory- Palm river). Mr. Chandless 

 brought good specimens of the fruit from the headwaters of the Purus. 

 At Tarapoto, in Maynas, the Polo-ponto is very frequent, and is 

 even occasionally cultivated for the sake of its fronds, which are 

 the usual material for thatch. I was able there to draw up a 

 nearly complete description of the living plant : it is deficient in 

 the account of the female inflorescence, which I only saw when 

 the fruit was already ripening ; and neither in this nor in the fol- 

 lowing species did I observe any " flores hermaphroditi v. abortu 

 masculi,*' such as Euiz and Pavon speak of. 



The chief characters of Phytelephas macrocarpa are to have 



either no trunk at all^ or a very sliort and stout one^ tvliich is nearly 

 always inclined or crooked ; large leaves equally pinnate to the very 

 lase, so that they have no distinct petiole ; male flowers {or rather 

 capituld) sessile on a long fleshy compressed spadix^ and containing 

 each from 150 to nearly 300 stamens. The fruits are from 9 to 12 

 inches in diameter, nearly spherical, and consist of from twelve to 

 twenty closely |mcked capitula, each of which is composed of nu- 

 merous concrete carpels, whereof only about four are fertile. The 

 sharply pyramidal free apices of the carpels are what render the 

 fruits muricated like those of an Anona, The nuts have been 

 long well-known in England. 



On crossing over to the western side of the Equatorial Andes, 

 I saw no more of the two species above mentioned, but in their 

 stead a third species very distinct from both, ami (so far as I can 

 find) liitherto imdescribed. It is known to the natives by the 

 names of " Cadi *' and " Corozo " — the latter applied chiefly to the 



LINX. PBOC. BOTAJTT, VOL. IT. ^ 



