142 MR. SPRUCE'S BOTANICAL EXCURSION 
Numerous leaves rose from the roots, and each plant bore a single 
flower, but I found no fruit, as I had hoped to do. To attain these 
lakes our men had to push the canoe through a thick grove of grasses, 
which stood out of the water to a height of from two to five feet, be- 
sides the length of stem buried in water and mud, and they were for- 
tunately all in excellent flower. They belong chiefly to the tribes 
Oryzee, Chlorideæ, and Paniceæ, and the most abundant is the Piri- 
membéca, celebrated everywhere on the Amazon as the richest of mea- 
dow-grasses. The same grasses constitute the mass of the numerous 
Soin islands on the Amazon (called “ Ilhas de Capim”), as I have 
ascertained by repeated examinations. These islands are sometimes 
acres in extent, and from five to eight feet of their thickness is under 
water; from this, some idea may be formed of the shock with which 
they would meet a canoe sailing against the furious current of the 
Amazon, and instances are not rare of large vessels being swamped or 
half-buried in the floating mass. During the force of the rainy season 
no vessel anchors in the Amazon; the least evil that could result from 
such imprudence would be the dragging of her anchor by the onslaught 
of an Ilha de Capim. To return to the Ponta Negra. In the lakes 
and among the tall grasses were several small floating plants, including 
a Salvinia, a pretty Riccia, a very curious plant with the aspect of a 
Salvinia, but proving to be a Euphorbiacea, of which I can find no de- 
scription in Endlicher, though it approaches Piyllanthus in technical 
character; and some others. It was strange to see quantities of a 
floating sensitive-plant, a Neptunia, whose slender tubular stems were 
coated with a cottony felt of an inch in thickness, as buoyant as cork, 
while the delicate leaves and flowers were by this means sustained com- 
pletely out of water. 
_ n the middle of May, though still not very strong, I began to think 
of visiting Monte Alegre, and I applied to the Commandante for men, 
my friend Dr. Campos having lent me an excellent boat. Santarem is 
noted at all times of the year for a scarcity in men and unoccupied 
houses; but now, when many vessels are making up their cargoes for 
Para, all the hands that can be got are required to man them. The 
Commandante, however, sent up the Tapajoz in quest of Tapuyas, but 
he has himself been very ill for some time, and whether from this cause 
he has not taken care that his commands were more promptly attended 
to, or whether there are really no men to be had, I cannot say, but 
