OF THE AMAZON. 43 



PLATE XVI. 



Eaphia t.edigera, Martins. 



Jupati, Lingoa GeraL 



This is one of the most striking of the many noble 

 Palms which grow on the rich alluvium of the Amazon. 

 Its comparatively short stem enables us fully to appre- 

 ciate the enormous size of its leaves, which are at the 

 same time equally remarkable for their elegant form. 

 They rise nearly vertically from the stem and bend out 

 on every side in graceful curves, forming a magnificent 

 plume seventy feet in height and forty in diameter. I 

 have cut down and measured leaves forty-eight and 

 fifty feet long, but could never get at the largest. The 

 leaflets spread out four feet on each side of the midrib. 

 They are rather irregularly scattered and not very 

 closely set ; they droop at the tips and have weak 

 spinules along the margins. 



The stem does not generally exceed six or eight feet 

 in height and is about a foot in diameter, clothed for 

 some distance down with the persistent sheathing bases 

 of the leaf-stalks and the numerous spinous processes 

 which proceed from them. These spines are something 

 like those of the " Patawa," but not so thick and strong. 



The spadices are very large, compoundly branched 

 and drooping ; they grow from among the leaves and 

 have numerous bract-like sheaths in the place of spathes. 



The flowers are of a greenish olive colour and densely 



