Cuap. II. COLOSSAL! TREES. 33 
A mile or a mile and a half farther on, the character of the woods 
began to change, and we then found ourselves in the primeval forest. 
The appearance was greatly different from that of the swampy tract 
I have already described. The land was rather more elevated and 
undulating ; the many swamp plants with their long and broad leaves 
were wanting, and there was less underwood, although the trees were 
wider apart. ‘Through this wilderness the road continued for seven 
or eight miles. The same unbroken forest extends all the way to 
Maranbam and in other directions, as we were told, a distance of about 
300 miles southward and eastward of Para. In almost every hollow 
part the road was crossed by a brook, whose cold, black, leaf-stained 
waters were bridged over by tree trunks. The ground was carpeted, as 
usual, by Lycopodiums, but it was also encumbered with masses of 
vegetable déérvis and a thick coating of dead leaves. Fruits of many 
kinds were scattered about, amongst which were many sorts of beans, 
some of the pods a foot long, flat and leathery in texture, others hard as 
stone. In one place there was a quantity of large empty wooden 
vessels, which Isidoro told us fell from the Sapucaya tree. They are 
called monkeys’ drinking.cups (Cuyas de Macaco), and are the capsules 
which contain the nuts sold under the name just mentioned, in Covent 
Garden Market. At the top of the vessel is a circular hole, in which 
a natural lid fits neatly. When the nuts are ripe, this lid becomes 
loosened, and the heavy cup falls with a crash, scattering the nuts over 
the ground. The tree which yields the nuts (Lecythis ollaria), is of 
immense height. It is closely allied to the Brazil-nut tree (Bertholletia 
excelsa), whose seeds are also enclosed in large woody vessels; but 
these have no lid, and fall entire to the ground. This is the reason why 
the one kind of nut is so much dearer than the other. The Sapucaya 
is not less abundant, probably, than the Bertholletia, but its nuts in 
falling are scattered about and eaten by wild animals; whilst the full 
capsules of Brazil-nuts are collected entire by the natives. 
What attracted us chiefly were the colossal trees. The general run 
of trees had not remarkably thick stems ; the great and uniform height 
to which they grow without emitting a branch, was a much more 
noticeable feature than their thickness; but at intervals of a furlong 
or so a veritable giant towered up. Only one of these monstrous trees 
can grow within a given space ; it monopolises the domain, and none 
but individuals of much inferior size can find a footing near it. ‘The 
cylindrical trunks of these larger trees were generally about 20 to 25 feet 
in circumference. Von Martius mentions having measured trees in the 
Para district, belonging to various species (Symphonia coccinea, Le- 
cythis sp. and Crateva Tapia), which were 50 to 60 feet in girth at the 
point where they become cylindrical. The height of the vast column- 
like stems could not be less than too feet from the ground to their 
lowest branch. Mr. Leavens, at the saw-mills, told me they frequently 
squared logs for sawing 1oo feet long, of the Pao d’Arco and the Mas- 
saranduba. ‘The total height of these trees, stem and crown together, 
may be estimated at from 180 to 200 feet: where one of them stands, 
the vast dome of foliage rises above the other forest trees as a domed 
cathedral does above the other buildings in a city. 
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