OF THE AMAZON. 73 



PLATE XXVII. 



Desmoncus macroacanthus, Martins. 



Jacitara, Lingoa Geral. 



The stem of this palm is very slender, weak and 

 flexible, often sixty or seventy feet long, and climbing 

 over bushes and trees or trailing along the ground. It 

 is armed with scattered tubercular prickles. The leaves 

 grow alternately along the stem ; they are pinnate, 

 with from three to five pairs of leaflets, beyond which 

 the midrib is produced and armed with several pairs of 

 strong spines directed backwards, and with numerous 

 smaller prickles. The leaflets are ovate, with the edges 

 waved or curled. The bases of the petioles are expanded 

 into long membranous sheaths. 



The spadices grow on long stalks from the axils of 

 the leaves and are simply branched. The spathes are 

 ventricose, erect, persistent and prickly, and the fruit is 

 globular, of a red colour, and not eatable. 



The rind or bark of this species is much used for 

 making the "tipitis" or elastic plaited cylinders used 

 for squeezing the juice out of the grated Mandiocca-root 

 in the manufacture of farinha. These cylinders are some- 

 times made of the rind of certain water plants and of 

 the petioles of several palms, but those constructed of 

 "Jacitara" are said to outlast two or three of the 

 others, and though they are much more difficult to 



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