THE NEOTROPICAL REGIONS 275 



along these two sorts of streams, is very different, but is very 

 similar throughout along streams of the same type. Many 

 identical species occur in the riparian forest of the Amazon from 

 its mouth to the base of the Andes. As a typical example, Spruce 

 mentions the "Mulatto" tree (Eukylista sp.) found everywhere 

 along the shores of the Amazon, and prized for fuel. 



Like all tidal rivers in the tropics the great delta of the Amazon 

 has very extensive mangrove formations, in which the most 

 important species, Rhizophora mangle, is the same as in the man- 

 grove swamps of West Africa, on the opposite side of the Atlantic. 



Ascending the streams, the mangroves gradually disappear, 

 with the decreasing salinity of the water, and are replaced by 

 the riparial forest or gapo. 1 The trees of the gapo include many 

 Leguminosae, e. g., Inga, Pithecolobium; Brazil nuts, myrtles, 

 custard-apples (Sapotaceae), and especially a great profusion of 

 palms. 



Trees and shrubs are almost hidden by a dense tangle of creepers. 

 These climbing plants include many species with showy flowers, — 

 passion-flowers, Bignonias, morning glories, and the less familiar 

 Malpighiaceae, very abundant in the American tropics, and with 

 showy yellow or pink flowers. Another very striking creeper is 

 Cacoucia coccinea (Combretaceae), with brilliant scarlet flowers. 



Just above the inundated area, in the drier waste places, their is 

 a dense growth of shrubs and coarse herbaceous plants. Solanum, 

 Cassia and \arious other showy Leguminosae, and peppers, some 

 being large shrubs, and many climbing plants like those of the gapo. 



The primaeval forest near Para is very vividly pictured by 

 Spruce. 2 



"There were enormous trees crowned with magnificent foliage, 

 decked with fantastic parasites, hung all over with lianas which 

 varied in thickness from slender threads to huge python-like 

 masses, were now round, now flattened, now knotted and dow 

 twisted with the regularity of a cable. Intermixed with tin 

 trees, and often equal to them in altitude, grew noble palms; 

 while other and far lovelier species of the same family, their ringed 

 stems sometimes scarce exceeding a finger's thickness, but bearing 

 plume-like fronds and pendulous bunches of black or red berrii 

 quite like those of their loftier allies, formed along with shrubs 

 1 Spruce, loc, cit., Vol. 1, p. 4. ' Loc. eii., p. 17. 



