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TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 71 
yo 6) Deseription of the Murichi, or Ita Palm, of Guiana. 
vate! By Sir R. ScuomsBurex. 
_The author referred to the early accounts which naturalists in Europe received of 
this beautiful palm, of which Sir Walter Raleigh appears to have brought the first 
fruits to Europe. Clusius, in his ‘ Exotic Flora,’ describes it as “ fructus elegantissi- 
mus squamosus. similis palme-pini,” and Father Gumilla, Gili, and the older au- 
thors on Guiana extol it in consequence of the various uses the aborigines of Guiana 
make of it. It serves at different stages of its growth as a vegetable and furnishes a 
cabbage equal to the Palmetto; at the maturity of its fruits, they are eaten as well in 
their natural state as prepared into a drink, which, when drunk copiously, proves ine- 
briating. It is remarkable, that when much use is made of the fruit it communicates 
to the linen a yellow colour after perspiration. The trunk is tapped and a fluid flows 
from it which possesses much saccharine matter. Of the greatest delicacy however 
is the saccharine liquor extracted from the unexpanded flower, which affords a liquor 
resembling champagne in its briskness. The Indians prepare from the pith of its 
trunk a flour resembling that of the Sagas farinifera, which the Warrau Indians call 
Ari*. Mixed as a pap, it is considered to be an excellent remedy for dysentery. 
The fan-shaped leaves are used as a thatch for covering houses, and the stump of 
one of those leaves serves as a broom to sweep them with. The Indians of the Savan- 
nalis and mountainous tracts use the base of the half-sheathing leaves for the pre- 
pavation of sandals. The midribs of the young branches are cut in thin slices, and 
after having been dried they are connected together with withes, and serve as a sail 
for the Indian's canoe or as a mat to sleep upon. They are used by the travelling 
entomologist as a substitute for cork to fix insects upon, or to those who are provided. 
with strong beards as razor-strops. Of the greatest use are however the fibres of the 
young leaves, which are manufactured into thread and ropes, and they are of such a 
tenacity that the greater number of Indian tribes fabricate their beds and hammocks 
ofthem. The inhabitants of the Rio Negro make a trade of it, and a fine hammock is 
sold trom ten to twelve milreis. Even in its decay the mauritia is of use, and affords a 
delicacy to the Indians, which likewise many colonists do not refuse, namely, the 
Jarvee of a large beetle; the Curculio palmarum is found in large numbers in the pith 
when the trunk is near its decay, and, when boiled or roasted, resembles in taste 
beef-marrow. ’ 
This useful tree, which extends from the Llanos of Cumana to the western tributa- 
ries of the Rio Negro and the mouth of the Amazon, or over an area of 550,000 square 
miles, was appropriately called by Father Gumilla arbol de la vida, the tree of life; 
and it is related at the Orinoco, that oneof the kings of Spain hearing of this won- 
drous tree, which at once furnished bed, bread and wine, attempted its introduction 
into the mother country. The author wished to correct finally those who have writ- 
ten on this tree in two points. It is, first, described as a tree scarcely thirty feet 
high, while it reaches sometimes a height of’ 120 feet, and its average size in Guiana 
is not less than fifty feet; and next to this it is asserted, that they are not to be found 
at a greater height than 800 feet, while the author has met them in numerous groups 
and of a luxuriant growth at a height of from 3000 to 4000 feet above the sea, growing 
as usual in groups and in swampy soil. 
Deseription of the Fruit of some of the Hepatice. By Professor Atrman. 
In this communication the author demonstrated the existence in the sporangia of 
Marchantia and Jungermannia of precisely the same form of fibro-cellular tissue which 
is found ‘in the lining membrane of the anthers of flowering plants. This structure 
he believed to constitute a beautiful hygroscopic apparatus, through whose agency the 
dehiscence of the fruit is effected. ' 
Prof, Allman observed, that in Warchantia conica, at the period of maturation, the 
pedicel of the sporangium becomes suddenly increased in size, being all at once 
gorged with juices, and by acting against the top of the receptacle, forces the sporan- 
ium through the margin of this latter structure, and thus brings the peculiar tissue 
of which it is composed into a condition which enables it to be acted on by the hy- 
* The flour which they procure from the arrow-root is called Ari-ard, and our denomi- 
nation arrow-root is most likely derived from the Indian word. 
