to-day extremely rare. The tree grows most appropriately in open 

 grasslands or savannahs, never in heavy forests. The species is 

 now very common in the upper Orinoco area and in the savan- 

 nahs of the Rio Branco. It is rarel\- seen nowadays in the Rio 

 Negro, where apparently it was once frequently cultivated. 



Over a century ago. Spruce reported: "I first gathered speci- 

 mens of the Parica (or Niopo) tree in 1850 in Santarem at the 

 junction of the Tapajoz and Amazon where it had apparently 

 been planted. In the following year, I gathered it on the little river 

 Jauauari— one of the lower tributaries of the Rio Negro— where 

 it was certainly wild. "(A. R. Wallace [Ed.J: Nowsofa Botanist on 

 the Atnozon and Andes 2 ( 1908) 426). 



In my several years in the Rio Negro basin, I never encountered 

 Anadenanthera perei^rina, but Dr. Ghillean T. Prance located 

 trees near the mouth of the Rio Une, a small affluent of the Rio 

 Negro. Dr. Prance writes: "These trees are in a field beside the 

 river where they grow in a group. They are regularly visited each 

 year by a group of Yanomamo who harvest them." 



It is interesting that certain plants, common enough apparently 

 along the Rio Negro a century ago, are now nearly non-existent in 

 the area. Another example is the guarana plant, PauUinia 

 Cupana, which, in Spruce's time, v\as apparently frequent all 

 along the Rio Negro obviously planted. To-day, it is hardly ever 

 seen along this river and, if so, is planted only as a curiosity. 



fRio 



Mimosa pudica Linnaeus, Sp. PI. (1753) 518. 



Ect ador: Provincia Pata/a. Rio Chic6. affluent of Rio Pasta/a, Village o 

 Chic(S. "White ilower." August 1979. Slwmluck el Ness 21 1. 



The Kechwa name for this plant in Ecuador is punyo-sisa. 

 According to the collectors, the leaves are put in pillows for the 

 elderly and children who cannot sleep. 



Parkia oppositifolia Spruce ex Bentham in Trans. Linn. Soc. 30 

 (1875)363. 



Bra/il: Estadodo Amazonas, basin of Rio Negro, Rio Ineiuxi, Maki'i Indian 

 village 300 km. abo\e mouth. "Tree. 10 m. x 30 cm. diameter. "October 24, 197 1 . 

 Prance. Maas ct a/. 15594. 



261 



