94 PALM TREES 



being a farinaceous mass. Occasionally, however, fruits 

 are found containing the perfect stony seed, and they 

 are then nearly double the usual size. This production 

 of undeveloped fruits may be partly due to change of 

 soil and climate, for the tree is not found wild in the 

 Amazon district, but is invariably planted near the 

 Indians' houses. In their villages many hundreds of 

 these trees may often be seen, adding to the beauty of 

 the landscape, and supplying the inhabitants with an 

 abundance of wholesome food. In fact it here takes 

 the place of the cocoa-nut in the East, and is almost as 

 much esteemed. 



As the stems are so spiny, it is impossible to climb 

 up them to procure the fruit in the ordinary way. The 

 Indians therefore construct rough stages up the sides 

 of the trees, or form rude ladders by securing cross 

 pieces between two of them, by which they mount so 

 high as to be able to pull down the bunches of fruit 

 with hooked poles. 



The fruits are eaten either boiled or roasted, when 

 they somewhat resemble Spanish chestnuts, but have a 

 peculiar oily flavour. They are also ground up into a 

 kind of flour, and made into cakes which are roasted 

 like cassava bread ; or the meal is fermented in water 

 and forms a subacid creamy liquid. Parrots, macaws 

 and many other fruit-eating birds devour them, and 

 tame monkeys eat them greedily, though the wild ones 

 cannot climb the spiny stems to obtain them. 



The wood of this tree when old and black is exceed- 

 ingly hard, turning the edge of any ordinary axe. 

 When descending the River Uaupes in April 1852, I 



