OF THE AMAZON. 10L 



PLATE XXXVIII. 



AsTROCARYUM MTTRTJMURTJ, MartiuS. 



Murumuru, Lingoa GeraL 



This palm has the stem from eight to twelve feet high, 

 irregularly ringed, and armed with long scattered black 

 spines. The leaves are terminal and of moderate size, 

 regularly pinnate, the leaflets spreading out uniformly 

 in one plane, elongate, acute, with the terminal pair 

 shorter and broader. The petioles and sheathing bases 

 are thickly covered with long black spines generally 

 directed downwards, and often eight inches long. 



The spadices grow from among the leaves and are 

 simply branched and spiny, erect when in flower, but 

 drooping with the fruit. The spathes are elongate, 

 splitting open and deciduous. The fruit is of a mode- 

 rate size, oval, of a yellowish colour, and with a small 

 quantity of rather juicy eatable pulp covering the stony 

 seed. 



On the Upper Amazon cattle eat the fruits of the 

 Murumuru, wandering about for days in the forest to 

 procure it. The hard stony seeds pass through their 

 bodies undigested and become thickly scattered over the 

 pastures adjoining the houses. They are so hard that 

 it is almost impossible to break them, except by a very 

 hard blow with a large hammer. The internal albumen 

 or kernel is also excessively hard, nearly approaching 

 to vegetable ivory. Yet pigs are very fond of these 



