OF THE AMAZON. 13 



PLATE IV. 



Leopoldinia ptjlchra, Martins. 



Jara, Lingoa Geral. 



The Jara or Jara miri (little Jara) is from ten to fifteen 

 feet high. The stem is cylindrical, erect, and about 

 two inches in diameter. The leaves are very regularly 

 pinnate, about four feet long, with the leaflets slightly 

 drooping and the terminal pair small. The leaf-stalks 

 are slender and the sheathing bases are persistent, giving 

 out from their margins abundance of flat fibrous pro- 

 cesses which are curiously netted and interlaced together, 

 clothing the stem with a firm covering often down to 

 the very base. At the lower part this gradually rots 

 and is rubbed away or falls off, leaving the stem bare. 

 The flower-stalks or spadices are numerous, and very 

 large and much branched ; and the fruits are about an 

 inch in diameter, oval and flattened, and of a pale green- 

 ish-yellow colour. The outer covering is firm and fleshy, 

 and has a very bitter taste. 



This species is found on the banks of the Rio Negro 

 and some of its tributaries, from its mouth up to its 

 source, and on the black-water tributaries of the 

 Orinoco. It never grows far from the water's edge, 

 though generally out of reach of the floods in the wet 

 season. It is not known to occur beyond this very 

 limited district. 



The stem of this tree being very smooth and cylin- 



c 



