OF THE AMAZON. 67 



PLATE XIV. 



IHIARTEA VEKTRICOSA, MaHklS. 



Pashiuba barriguda, Brazil. 



This is the most majestic tree of the genus. The 

 stem reaches eighty or a hundred feet in height, and 

 besides being rather thicker in proportion than in the 

 last species, offers a remarkable character in being con- 

 stantly more or less swollen near the middle or towards 

 the top. The trunk is generally cylindrical to a height 

 of forty or fifty feet, where it swells out to double its 

 former diameter or more for ten or fifteen feet further, 

 when it again diminishes and becomes cylindrical for 

 about twenty feet to the summit. It is only when the 

 trees have reached their full height or nearly so that 

 the swelling commences. In a forest where they 

 abound many may be seen of a large size, but quite 

 cylindrical from top to bottom, while others present 

 every degree of swelling from a just perceptible thick- 

 ening to a most extraordinary enlargement. The 

 column of air-roots in this species is six or eight feet 

 high, forming a compact conical mass, the separate 

 roots being more slender than in the Iriartea exorhiza. 



The leaves are very large, with the leaflets broadly 

 triangular and much cut and waved, forming a very 

 elegant and yet massive head of foliage. The leaf- 

 column is very thick, much swollen at the base, and of 

 a deep bluish green colour. 



The unopened spathes are lunate in shape and curved 



