57 



PLATE XX. 

 Matjmtia gracilis, n. sp. 



Caranai, Lingo a Geral. 



This very elegant species is rather smaller than the 

 last. The stem is from twenty to thirty feet high, 

 slender, waving, and ringed with conical spines rather 

 smaller than in M. aculeata. 



The leaves are from five to eight in number with 

 much-drooping leaflets. The petioles are slender, short, 

 and greatly dilated at the base. The spadices are three 

 or four in number, growing from among the leaves, of 

 very large size in proportion to the tree, much -branched 

 and drooping. They bear great quantities of fruit, 

 which is of an oval shape and nearly as large as that of 

 the Mauritia carana. 



This beautiful little palm is first met with about 

 Barcellos on the Rio Negro, more than 300 miles up 

 the river, and is thence common as far as the black- 

 water tributaries of the Orinoco. It always grows 

 close to the water's edge in clumps of thirty or forty 

 individuals, and its drooping leaves of a pale hoary 

 green colour, never so" much crowded as to lose their 

 distinct outline, with the bending clusters of rich brown 

 fruit, render it one of the greatest ornaments of its 

 native river. The fruit is eaten, after being softened by 

 soaking some time in water. 



It seems closely allied to M. armata of Martius, 



