OF THE AMAZON. 27 



PLATE VIII. 



Euterpe catinga, n. sp. 



Assai de catinga, Lingoa Geral. 



This species differs from the last in its slenderer stem 

 and less drooping leaves and leaflets. It grows to 

 forty or fifty feet high. The spadices are fewer and 

 much smaller. The fruit also is smaller, and has more 

 pulpy matter, so that a small quantity of it makes more 

 of the " vinho d' Assai " (the Assai wine) than the same 

 quantity of fruit of the larger kind. The column 

 formed by the sheathing bases of the leaves is smaller 

 than in the last species, and always of a red colour. 

 The roots rise considerably above the ground, forming 

 a distinct cone, which is not the case in the E. oleracea. 

 It inhabits the forests on a dry sarjdy soil, of the Upper 

 Rio Negro. These districts are called Catinga forests 

 by the natives, and have very peculiar vegetable pro- 

 ductions, differing almost entirely from those of the 

 lofty virgin forest. 



The preparation of the fruit of this species is sweeter 

 and more finely flavoured than that of any other, and 

 is therefore much sought after, but it takes the produce 

 of four or five trees to yield as much as a single spadix 

 of the larger kind will often produce. I found the 

 fruit ripe in the month of April on the river Uaupes, a 

 branch of the Rio Negro above the Falls. 



d 2 



