OF THE AMAZON. 121 



PLATE XLVXI. 

 Maximiliana regia, Martins, 



Inaja, Lingo a Geral. 



This palm has a lofty massive stem, smooth and ob- 

 scurely ringed. The leaves are very large, terminal 

 and pinnate. The leaflets are arranged in groups of 

 three, four or five, at intervals along the midrib, from 

 which they stand out in different directions, and are 

 very long and drooping. The bases of the petioles are 

 persistent a short distance down the stem, and some- 

 times down to the ground, even when the trees are 

 forty or fifty feet high. 



The spadices are numerous, growing from the bases 

 of the lower leaves. They are simply branched and 

 very densely clustered. The spathes are large, spindle- 

 shaped, ventricose and woody, with a long beak. The 

 fruits are elongate and beaked, with a tough, brown, 

 outer skin, beneath which is a layer of soft fleshy pulp 

 of an agreeable subacid flavour, covering a hard stony 

 seed. 



The leaves of this tree are truly gigantic. I have 

 measured specimens which have been cut by the In- 

 dians fifty feet long, and these did not contain the 

 entire petiole, nor were they of the largest size. Owing, 

 however, to the loose irregular distribution of the 



M 



