OF THE AMAZON. 39 



PLATE XV. 



Iriartea setigera, Martins. 



Pashiuba miri, Lingoa Geral. 



This small species has the stem from fifteen to twenty 

 feet high, and varying from the thickness of a finger 

 to that of the wrist, which it never exceeds. The stem 

 is smooth and cylindrical, but distinctly ringed. The 

 roots appear only a few inches above the ground. The 

 leaves are pinnate, the leaflets elongate, triangular and 

 cut at the ends. The column is short and cylindrical, 

 and both it and the petioles are covered with short hairs 

 or down. The spadices have long stalks and grow from 

 beneath or from among the leaves ; they are rather 

 large and are simply branched. The spathes form 

 sheaths at the base's of the spadices, and are persistent. 

 The fruit is oval, of an orange-red colour, and about the 

 size of the " hip " or wild rose fruit. 



These trees grow on the Upper Amazon and Rio 

 Negro in the dry virgin forest, where they occur in 

 small scattered groves. 



This species is of great importance to the Indian of 

 the Rio Negro. With its stem he constructs his 

 "gravatana" or blowing tube, which, with the little 

 arrows before described as made from the spines of the 

 Patawa, forms a most valuable weapon, enabling him 

 to bring down monkeys, parrots and curassow birds 



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