274 MR. SPRUCE’S BOTANICAL EXCURSION 
time, and continued heavily all night, making us all very uncomfortable 
and (for the first time) coming through the sides of the tolda, and 
soaking some of my books. In the morning we learnt to our great 
regret that our kind host, Senhor Angelo, had been suddenly called 
away to below Obidos, on important business, and was not expected 
to return until the end of the week. I thus missed much interesting 
information, which I had calculated on receiving from him; but his 
sister, Donna Cxesaria, gave us a hearty welcome, and I determined, 
if the rain should cease, not to lose the chance of seeing the Pao de 
Cédro in a living state. 
By ten o'elock the rain cleared off, and, allowing a little time for 
the wet to dry up, we struck into the forest, which was close at hand, 
accompanied by the feitor of Senhor Angelo, and were not long in 
finding a cedar-tree not too bulky to be cut down. It was accordingly 
chopped through, but another tree held it from falling ; we severed this 
too—still it would not fall, for the tops of both were so fastened to 
other trees by sipós, as to defy our efforts to bring them down. As it 
lay over, Diogo climbed up as far as the first leaves, which he cut off, 
but there were no flowers or fruit. The bark and wood of the Cédro 
have a very agreeable resinous odour. It obviously belongs to the 
same family as the cedar-wood of Demerara (Icica altissima), but I 
know not yet if it be the same species. Hardly any tree attains a 
larger size, and its floating trunks are the greatest obstruction to the 
navigation of the Amazon in the wet season. 
In ascending from Santarem I measured a trunk that had been cast 
on shore, and, though the top was broken off, the length of the re- 
- mainder was 110 feet, and the thickness proportionate. At the base, 
the four projecting buttresses (or sapopémas, as they are here called) 
measured each nine feet across. We afterwards cut down a Lauro, 
and took specimens of its wood and leaves. All the arborescent 
Laurinee produce excellent timber, but that is most esteemed which is 
sweet-scented. The Indians distinguish a great many trees by the 
smell and taste of their wood and bark. Were it not that Nature 
has wisely endowed them with great variety of odour and flavour, many 
of the trees of tropical forests would be quite undistinguishable, such 
a large proportion of them have smooth bark, and so utterly impossible 
is it in most cases to get a view of their leaves. The bark and wood 
