276 OUTLINE OF PLANT GEOGRAPHY 



and arbuscles of many types, a bush undergrowth not usually 

 very dense or difficult to penetrate. The herbaceous vegetation 

 was almost limited to a few ferns, Selaginellas, Sedges, here and 

 there a broad-leaved Scitaminea, and (but very rarely) a pretty 

 grass (Pariana). ... In some places one might walk for a 

 considerable distance without seeing a single herb or even rarely 

 a fallen leaf on the bare black ground. It is worthy to be noted 

 that the loftiest forest is the easiest to traverse; the lianas and 

 parasites (which may be compared to the rigging and shrouds of 

 a ship, whereof the masts and yards are represented by the trunks 

 and blanches of trees) being in great part hung too high to be 

 much in the way; whereas in the low gapo that sometimes skirts 

 the rivers, they have not yet got hoisted high enough to allow 

 one to pass beneath, but bar the way with an awful array of 

 entangled, looped, and knotted ropes, which even the sword 

 itself can sometimes with difficulty unloose." 



The Brazil nut and the related monkey nuts (Lecythis spp.) 

 are among the commonest and largest trees of the high forest. 

 Spruce measured a specimen whose nearly cylindrical trunk was 

 42 feet in circumference, and about 100 feet to the first branch. 

 This he states was the largest tree he found. The Brazil nut and 

 species of silk-cotton (Bombax spp.) are the tallest trees of the 

 Brazilian forest, but they probably never exceed 200 feet in height, 



Many of the trees of the virgin forest show an extraordinary 

 development of buttresses at the base, which may reach a great 

 size. These are especially marked in the silk-cotton trees, but 

 Spruce notes that among the laurels, some of the finest trees of 

 the Amazonian forest, buttresses were quite wanting. These 

 trees have deep roots, and where they predominate is a certain 

 indication of deep soil. 



The lianas belong to many families and show much variety in 

 the shape of their stems; while the stem of the free swinging forms 

 is usually cylindrical, they are sometimes curiously twisted or 

 flattened. Spruce 1 cites the case of a leguminous species (Schellia 

 splendens), whose flattened wavy stem is sometimes a foot broad, 

 and climbs over the trees for 200-300 feet. The trumpet creepers 

 {Bignoniaceae) often have strongly angled stems. 2 



While most of these giant lianas are twiners, others climb by 



1 Spruce, loc. cit., p. 28. Ibid., p. 28. 



