42 PARA. Cuap. II, 
who took an interest in our pursuit. He paddled me one day over 
the lake, where we shot a small alligator and several Piosocas (Parra 
Jacana), a waterfowl having very long legs and toes, which give it the 
appearance of walking on stilts, as it stalks about, striding from one 
water-lily leaf to another. I was surprised to find no coleopterous 
insects on the aquatic plants. The situation appeared to be as 
favourable for them as possibly could be. In England such a richly- 
mantled pool would have yielded an abundance of Donaciz, Chrysomele, 
Casside, and other beetles; here I could not find a single specimen. 
Neither could I find any water-beetles; the only exception was a 
species of Gyrinus, about the same size as G. natator, the little shining 
whirligig-beetle of Europe, which was seen in small groups in shady 
corners, spinning round on the surface of the water precisely as its 
congener does in England. The absence of leaf-eating beetles on the 
water plants I afterwards found was general throughout the country. 
A few are found on large grasses, and Marantaceous plants in some 
places, but these are generally concealed in the sharp folds of the leaves, 
and are almost all very flat in shape.* I therefore conclude that the 
aquatic plants in open places in this country are too much exposed to 
the sun’s heat to admit of the existence of leaf-eating beetles. 
Larry told me the Indian names, and enumerated the properties of a 
number of the forest trees. One of these was very interesting—viz., the 
Jutahi, which yields the gum copal, called by the natives Jutahi-sica. 
There are several species of it, as appears at once from the nature of 
the fruit. ‘They belong to the order Leguminosz : the pods are woody 
and excessively hard ; inside they contain a number of beans, enveloped 
in a sweet yellowish floury substance, which is eaten by the inhabitants. 
The shell burns with a clear flame. Some of the species have large 
pods, others small oval ones, containing only one bean. The trees are 
amongst the largest in the forest, growing from 150 to 18o feet in 
height : the bark is similar to that of our oak. The leaves are in pairs, 
whence arises the botanical name of the genus, Hymenza. The resin 
which the various species produce exudes from wounds or gashes made 
in the bark ; but I was told that the trees secrete it also spontaneously 
from the base of the trunk within, and that large lumps are found in the 
earth amongst the roots when a tree is uprooted by storms. In the resin, 
ants and other insects are sometimes embedded, precisely as they are 
in amber, which substance the Jutahi-sica often resembles, at least in 
colour and transparency. 
During these rambles by land and water we increased our collections 
considerably. Before we left the mills we arranged a joint excursion to 
the Tocantins. Mr. Leavens wished to ascend that river to ascertain if 
the reports were true that cedar grew abundantly between the lower- 
most cataract and the mouth of the Araguaya, and we agreed to 
accompany him. Whilst we were at the mills, a Portuguese trader 
arrived with a quantity of worm-eaten logs of this cedar, which he had 
gathered from the floating timber in the current of the main Amazons. 
* The species belong to the families Hispidze and Cassidiade, and to the genera . 
Cephaloleia, Arescus, Himatidium, Homalispa. Carnivorous beetles, also flat in 
shape, sometimes accompany them. 
