to the best of my knowledge Spruce never collected the 
species. 
Meeting such a rare tree, which was, in a way, cared 
for by man but never seen in the wild, was a challenge. 
The inhabitants of Sio Felipe stated that the tree did 
occur in the wild, but in distant afHuents. When I met 
the tree at Sio Marcelino, I questioned the Indians then 
dwelling there and was informed that at the very head- 
waters of the [garapé Uaba, emptying into the Rio Negro 
at Sio Marcelino on the right bank, the tree grows wild 
in the forest, that there are many, and that they grow 
into enormous trees. These people affirm that it is found 
wild only at the headwaters of creeks to the east of the 
uppermost Rio Negro. In January, the Igarapé Uaba 
was too dry to penetrate to its sources, so the joy of see- 
ing Anacardium negrense in the wild had to be deferred. 
In May, 1948, Lépez and I penetrated to the head- 
waters of the Rio Dimiti, a rather large affluent of the 
right bank of the Rio Negro to the north of Sao Mar- 
celino. The lower half of this creek is relatively wide and 
easily navigated in canoe, but above the mouth of a large 
creek known as the Yauiyabti it is extremely winding 
and very narrow, becoming almost impossible for navi- 
gation because of obstructions. My notes of this trip give 
a picture of what we saw: ‘‘Here we saw also our first 
wild cajuti [Anacardium negrense]. This tree grows in 
from two to five feet of water in the rainy season, along 
with Mauritia minor (buriti) and Mauritiella aculeata 
(HBK.) Burret. It is so extremely abundant that the 
locality or formation is called, curiously, not ‘‘buritizal”’ 
but ‘‘cajutizal.’’ In the dry season, when it drops its 
fruit, according to natives here, there is an abundance 
of hunting because the animals converge on the then 
partially dry swamps to feast upon the fruit. he afflu- 
ent of the Dimiti which goes over towards the Caiaburi 
[ 44 ] 
