A NATURALIST IN BRAZIL 



of rivers. The palms belong to the Monocotyledons : that is, to that 

 order of plants with parallel-veined leaves to which the grasses and 

 the lilies also belong; and like the latter, they grow from below 

 upwards, and not simultaneously in all directions, while gradually 

 increasing the diameter of the stem. It is said of the palms that they 

 do not grow thicker, and as a matter of fact the stems are developed 

 by the successive fall of the older leaves as the top of the trunk grows 

 upwards. Either the leaves break off from the leaf-stalks, when the 

 trunk is covered with a pattern of short stumps, or the spathes and 

 leaf-stalks also detach themselves, when the stem shows ring-shaped 

 or shield-shaped marks on an otherwise smooth surface, as in the 

 case of the coconut-palm. The circumference of the trunk is, however, 

 much the same when the tree is grown as when the crown is only 

 a short distance from the ground. Many palm-trees, indeed, like 

 the Royal palms, are thickened near the ground like an onion 

 when they are young, as though they were storing up the building 

 material for their subsequent growth (Plate 2). But in its journey 

 upwards the great crown needs plenty of room, and in a forest 

 full of trees and lianas it would be constantly impeded and entangled, 

 and would in the end become atrophied and stunted. This has 

 already been pointed out by the botanist Haberlandt. 



Palms, therefore, are hardly to be found in the Indian forests; 

 in the Brazilian forests they grow, as a rule, only in swampy and 

 sparsely-wooded areas; there the Burity displays its handsome 

 fan-shaped leaves (Plate 15), or the Pachiuba waves its great 

 pinnate fronds above a trunk standing on tall stilts. In the interior 

 of the virgin forest only palms of small stature with comparatively 

 small crowns are found ; for example, the forests of Sao Paulo are 

 adorned by the Palmito, a slender, graceful palm (Plate 13), 

 while certain of the Bactris palms are so small that they form almost 

 an undergrowth. One species protects its inflorescence by a brown 

 leaf, as by a roof. But the palms are not characteristic denizens of 

 the virgin forest, which owes its character to the foliage trees, as 

 I have already explained. 



In the virgin forest the Tree-ferns (Plate 16) have more hand- 

 some and more wide-spreading crowns than the palms. With their 

 horizontal unbrella-like screens of foliage they form a pleasant 

 contrast to the vertical lines of the tree-trunks and lianas. In Europe 

 we can admire this effect in respect of the delicate fronds of the 

 bracken, but the tree-fern is far more impressive. Growing to a 

 height of twelve or fifteen feet, with a rough, furry stem supported 



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