A NATURALIST IN BRAZIL 



hand. There was nothing to be seen, and I stood still in astonishment. 

 At last I saw above me, hanging from a bough, a long, thin switch, 

 which was still gently swaying to and fro. When I pulled at it I 

 discovered that it was set at regular intervals with circlets of short 

 recurved hooks, as hard as steel, like the claws of a tiny beast of 

 prey, and I discovered that the switch itself was the elongated midrib 

 of a finely pinnated palm-leaf (Plate 14). 



It was the Rattan Palm which had made me aware of its presence 

 in such a surprising fashion. With its slender, elastic stem it climbs 

 high among the trees, and its pinnate leaves, which end in switches 

 from three to six feet in length, hang downwards from all its parts. 

 On a breezy day these switches, waving up and down in the wind, 

 are blown against some neighbouring tree-trunk, where they imme- 

 diately sink their hooks into the bark, and hold fast. The upper leaves 

 in particular anchor themselves thus, and slowly the stem creeps 

 after them. At last the summit of the tree is reached ; and now the 

 leaves wave their lashes in the open air; they can climb no further. 

 In the meantime, however, the stem loses its lower leaves, and 

 therewith its points of support; it begins to sag, and forms loop after 

 loop, until the upper leaves are drawn back into the region of the 

 branches, and enabled once more to throw out their grappling-irons. 

 This happens again and again, and so finally, in the case of this and 

 other lianas, we find a great serpentine tangle of stem at the foot 

 of the supporting-tree, as it goes on adding convolution to con- 

 volution (Plate 19). 



In Brazil there is another climbing palm, the Jacytara. I found it 

 in Pernambuco, and was quite intimidated by its armament, which 

 has earned it the name of "the terrible." Woe to the fugitive who 

 attempts to move quickly through the undergrowth in which the 

 cHmbing palm has cast its harpoons ! He will leave behind him 

 tatters of clothing, skin, and flesh, if he does not indeed collapse 

 altogether in this fearful embrace. The long leaf (Fig. 4, A) of this 

 palm has pinnate leaves at the base, though even these have thorns 

 on their underside, as has the midrib from which they grow. The 

 nearer we approach the tip of the leaf, the more formidable are the 

 thorns, and at the same time they are transformed into reverted 

 hooks. Further on even the pinnules are metamorphosed into hooks, 

 and become as hard as horn. At the tip of the switch we can see 

 plainly that these recurved hooks are really pinnules, and they even 

 retain their green coloration. 



The botanist Schenck, who has exhaustively studied and described 



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