BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 187 
fruit in Brazil which so much reminded me of the grape. The skin, 
from its harsh pubescence, is not pleasant to eat. The cotyledons stain 
the hands a deep purple. The tension of the sapopemas, or exposed 
portions of the roots, is remarkable: when struck they admit a sound 
like guitar-strings ; when cut off at the base they fly up, and when cut 
on the side next the trunk they split along the middle. Though the 
stems are not hollow between the rings, as in the Cecropia, yet old trunks 
are often hollow in the middle. We cut down a tree of a foot in diameter, 
. about three feet from the base, and when we approached the centre 
water began to ooze out; another stroke of the axe and we were 
saluted by a jet of water which reached to four yards from the base of 
the tree, and continued to play until many gallons must have run out. 
This water was very stale, both to smell and taste, and left a muddy 
deposit on the adjacent shrubs. It was certainly quite different from 
the juice of the tree, which is greyish-white and bitter to the taste; but 
how it had obtained access to such a reservoir I am not prepared to 
say, for the trunk was quite entire, and I examined the axils of all the 
branches, where not the slightest orifice was visible. 
BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 
Journal of a Voyage up the Amazon and Rio Negro; by Ricuanp 
SPRUCE, Esa. 
(Continued from vol. iii. p. 278.) um 
[An accumulation of other interesting articles has rather interrupted 
the regular appearance of Mr. Spruce’s Journal. In our last (the 4th) 
volume of the ‘Journal’ we gave the more recent information in ex- 
tracts of letters received from Mr. Spruce (p. 278), dated Barra do 
Rio Negro, November 7, 1851; (p. 282), Falls of San Gabriel, high 
up the Rio Negro, December 28, 1851; and (p. 305), from the same 
place, April 15, 1852; since then we have only received a letter ac- 
companying some extensive collections, dated San Gabriel, Rio Negro, 
August 19, 1852. He was then on the point of starting from San 
Gabriel to Rio Uaupés, with a crew of Indians, for the exploration of 
that river, which he assures us is “undoubtedly the main branch of the 
