OF THE AMAZON. 87 



PLATE XXXIII. 

 Bactris tenuis, n. sp. 



Iu, Lingoa Geral. 



In this species the stem is not thicker than a goose 

 quill, distinctly jointed and smooth. The leaves are 

 terminal, four or five in number, and rather irregularly 

 pinnate. The leaflets are elongate and acute, with 

 produced points, four or five in number, on each side 

 of the midrib, the terminal pair being the broadest. 

 The petioles and their sheathing bases are covered with 

 small, flat, black spines. 



The spadices grow from below the leaves and are 

 very small and unbranched. The spathes are fusiform, 

 erect, persistent and smooth. The fruit is small, 

 globose, and of a red colour. 



This is one of the smallest of Palms, and in every 

 part of its structure offers a striking contrast to the 

 great Mauritia and other giants of the family. While 

 they possess huge columnar stems a hundred feet in 

 height and two feet in diameter, this has but a slender 

 stalk the thickness of a quill; and while their fruit 

 bunches are the largest in the vegetable kingdom, the 

 whole spadix of this species is smaller than a bunch of 

 currants. 



It is allied to B. cuspidata and to B. fissifrons of 

 Martius, but seems sufficiently distinct from either of 



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