304 SKETCH OF THE VEGETATION OF 
met with, the ground appearing as if it had been swept. In habit it 
resembles the Corozo colorado, or Oil Palm ( Elais melanococca, Geertn.) ; 
so much, indeed, that at first sight the two are easily mistaken for each 
other. Both affect similar localities, and have trunks which, after 
creeping along the ground a few yards, ascend, and attain about an 
equal height. Their leaves, also, resemble each other; and their fruit 
grows in a similar way, attached to short peduncles, and almost hidden 
in the axils. The habit, however, is nearly the only link that connects 
the Antà with the order of Palms: in flower, stamens, the organiza- 
tion of the fruit, in fine, in almost every essential character, it differs 
so widely from that family, that it cannot but be separated, and united 
with Pandaneæ. This species of Phytelephas, as has already been 
stated, is probably distinct from that growing on the banks of the 
Magdalena. The trunk creeps along the ground, and then ascends, 
seldom, however, higher than from four to six feet ; it is always pulled 
down, partly by its own weight, partly by the aerial roots, and thus 
forms a creeping caudex which is not unfrequently more than twenty 
feet long. The top is crowned with from twelve to sixteen pinnatifid 
leaves, the entire length of which is from eighteen to twenty feet. The 
leaflets, or rather segments, are towards the base of the leaf alternate, 
towards the apex opposite: they are three feet long, two inches broad, 
and their entire number generally amounts to 160. All the plants 
which I saw were diccious, the males always being more robust, and 
their trunks more erect and higher, than the females. The flowers of 
both emit a most penetrating almond-like smell, which attracts swarms 
of honey-bees, chiefly the stingless species inhabiting the forests. The 
male flowers are attached to fleshy spikes, which are from four to five 
. feet long, and are hanging down. The female flowers appear in bun- 
. dles, on short thick peduncles, and stand erect. The fruit, being a 
collection of drupes, forms large heads, and is at first erect, but when 
approaching maturity its weight increases, and the leaf-stalks, which 
so long supported the bulky mass, have rotted away, it hangs down. 
A plant bears at one time from six to eight of these heads, each of 
which contains on an average eighty seeds, and weighs, when ripe, 
about twenty-five pounds. The uses to which the 42/2 is applied by 
~ the Indians are nearly the same as elsewhere. With its leaves their 
. huts are thatched, and the young liquid albumen is eaten. The 
“nuts,” however, are turned to no useful purpose. The Spanish- 
