OF THE AMAZON. 31 



PLATES X. and XI. 



(Enocarptjs batawa, Martins. 



Patawa, Lingoa Geral. 



This species can hardly be distinguished from the 

 (Enocarpus baccdba when young. In the full-grown 

 plant, however, the leaves preserve their regularity, the 

 leaflets spreading out regularly in one plane and having 

 a very beautiful appearance. The stem in old trees is 

 fifty or sixty feet high and quite smooth, but in those 

 growing in the shade of the forest, and in all young 

 trees, the stem is completely hidden by the persistent 

 bases of the decayed and fallen leaves. I have figured 

 a tree in this state (Plate XI.). 



The sheathing bases of the petioles give out from 

 their margins numerous long spinous processes of a 

 very singular character. They are from eighteen inches 

 to three feet long, of a black colour, flattish, and gene- 

 rally broken or fibrous at the point. They are much 

 sought after by the Indians, who use them to make 

 arrows for their "gravatanas" or blow-pipes. One of 

 these arrows is here represented with the wicker quiver 

 in which they are carried. They are about fifteen or 

 eighteen inches long, sharply pointed at the end, which 

 is covered with " curari" poison for three or four inches 

 down, and notched so as to break off in the wound. 

 Near the bottom a little of the soft down of the silk- 

 cotton-tree is twisted round into a smooth spindle- 



