THE NATURALIST ON THE RIVER AMAZONS. 



635 



Vessel is a circular hole, in which a natural 

 I'd fits neatly. When the nuts are ripe, this 

 Al becomes loosened, and the heavy cup falls 

 with a crash, scattering the nuts over the 

 ground. The tree which yields the nut 

 (Lecythis ollaria), is of immense height. It 

 is Closely allied to the Brazil-nut tree (Berthol- 

 letia excelsa), whose seeds are also inclosed 

 in large woody vessels ; hut 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 ; while the full cap- 

 sules of Brazil-nuts are collected entire by the 

 natives. 



What attracted us chiefly were the colossal 

 trees. The general run of trees had not re- 

 markablv thick stems; the great and uni- 

 form height to which they grow without 

 emitting a branch was a much more notice- 

 able feature than their thickness ; but at in- 

 tervals of a furlong or so a veritable giant 

 towered up. Only one of these monstrous 

 trees can grow within a given space ; it mo- 

 nopolizes the domain, and none but individ- 

 uals 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 men- 

 tions having measured trees in the Para dis- 

 trict, belonging to various species (JSympho- 

 nia cocciuea, Lecythis sp. and Crataeva Ta- 

 pia), which were 50 to 60 feet in 'girth at the 

 point where they become cylindrical. The 

 height of the vast column-like steois could 

 not be less than 100 feet from the ground to 

 their lowest branch. Mr. Leavens, at the 

 saw-mills, told me they frequently squared 

 logs for sawing 100 feet long, of the Pao 

 d'Arco and the Massaranduba. The total 

 height of these trees, stem and crow r n to- 

 gether, 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. 



A very remarkable feature in these trees is 

 the growth of buttress-shaped projections 

 around the lower part of their stems. The 

 spaces between these buttresses, which are 

 generally thin walls of wood, form spacious 

 chambers, and may be compared to stalls in 

 a stable : some of them are large enough to 

 hold half a dozen persons. The purpose of 

 these structures is as obvious, at the first 

 glance, as that of the similar props of brick- 

 work which support a high wall. They are 

 not peculiar to one species, but are common 

 to most of the larger forest trees. Their 

 nature and manner of growth are explained 

 when a series of young trees of different 

 ages is examined. It is then seen that they 

 are the roots which have raised themselves 

 ridge-like out of the earth ; growing grad- 

 ually upward as the increasing height of the 

 tree required augmented support. Thus they 

 ure plainly intended to sustain the massive 

 crown and trunk in these crowded forests, , 



where lateral growth of the roots in the earth 

 ia rendered difficult by the multitude of com- 

 petitors. 



The other grand forest trees whose native 

 names we learned, were the Moira-tinga (the 

 White or King-tree), probably the same as, 

 or allied to, the Mora excelsa, which Sir Rob- 

 ert Schombuigk discovered in British Gui- 

 ana ; the Samaiima (Eriodendron Samauma) 

 and the MassaraLdiiba, or Cow-tree. The 

 last-mentioned is the most reinai kable. We 

 had already heard a good deal about this; 

 tree, and about its producing from its baik a. 

 copious supply of milk as pleasant to dribk. 

 as that of the cow. We had also eaten its 

 fruit in Para, where it is sold in the streets, 

 by negro market wom'^n ; and had heard a 

 good deal . f the duraoleness in water of its 

 timber. We were glad, therefore, to see this 

 wonderful tree growing in its native wilds. 

 It is one of the largest of the forest mon- 

 archs, and is peculiar in appearance on ac- 

 count of its deeply-scored, reddish, and rag- 

 ged bark. A decoction of the baik, I was 

 told, is used as a red dye for cloth. A few 

 days afterward we tasted its milk, which 

 was drawn from dry logs that had been stand 

 ing many days in the hot suri, at the saw- 

 mills. It was pleasant with colfee, but had a 

 slight rankness when drank pure ; it soon 

 thickens to a glue, which is excessively tena- 

 cious, and is often used to cement broken 

 crockery. I was told that it was not safe to 

 drink much of it, for a slave had recently 

 nearly lost his life through taking it too 

 freely. 



In some parts of the road ferns were con- 

 spicuous objects. But I afterward found 

 them much more numerous on the Maranham 

 road, especially in one place where the whole 

 forest glade formed a vast fernery ; the 

 ground was covered with terrestrial species, 

 and the tree-trunks clothed with climbing and 

 epiphytous kinds. I saw no tree ferns in the 

 Para district ; they belong to hilly regions ; 

 some occur, however, on the Upper Ama- 

 zons. 



Such were the principal features in the 

 vegetation of the wilderness ; bat where were 

 the flowers ? To our great disappointment 

 we saw none, or only such as were insignifi- 

 cant in appearance. Orchids are very rare 

 in the dense forests of the low lands. I be 

 lieve it is now tolerably well ascertained that 

 the majority of forest trees in equatorial Bra- 

 zil have small and inconspicuous flowers. 

 Flower-frequenting insects are also rare in 

 the forest. Of course they would not be 

 found where their favorite food was want- 

 ing, but I always noticed that even where 

 flowers occurred in the forest, few or no in- 

 sects were seen upon them. In the open 

 country or campos of Santarem, on the 

 Lower AmaZvms, flowering trees and bushes 

 are more abundant, and there a large num- 

 ber of floral insects are attracted. The forest 

 bees of South America belonging to the 

 genera Melipona and Euglossa are more fre- 

 quently seen feeding on the sweet sap which 

 v exudes from the trees, or on the excrement 



