xv FROM MANAOS TO TARAPOTO 



\j 



large corymbs of pretty purple flowers. On one 

 clayey slope was a large bed of Umiri (Humirium 

 sp.) with ripe fruit, which the numerous cattle 

 (belonging chiefly to the Padre) pick up as they fall. 

 Two Monimiaceae, one with very large Melastoma- 

 like leaves and large fruits, I have not seen before. 

 The other is very near a Uaupes species. 1 



NOTES ON THE VEGETATION OF THE SOLIMOES 



The sloping banks clad with long grass form a strong contrast 

 to those of the Rio Negro. On the islands the chief vegetation is 

 Sa/ix Humboldtiana and a Cecropia, with a rather inelegant 

 bamboo supporting itself on them. The white trunks of the 

 trees are very remarkable actually white with a crust of rudi- 

 mentary lichens, especially those of Cecropia. The foliage at 

 this season is rather ragged and scanty, but when the rising or 

 setting sun illuminates the white skeleton, the dots of green on 

 the extremities of the branchlets have a pretty effect. This is 

 particularly noticeable in places where the winds have broken 

 off the tops of the trees. 



Of palms the Murumuru is abundant. An elegant Bartris 

 (probably B. concinna, Mart.) about 18 feet high grows in broad 

 patches. It is abundant at Yurimaguas on the Huallaga. 



A Loranthus with large red flowers tipped with yellow gro\\s 

 on many different trees very often on Imba-uba and a species 

 of Madura. Several Ingas are in flower, and Triplaris sitri- 

 namensis (Polyonacese) is frequent. The Arrow-reed abounds 

 on low coasts and islands, and in similar places there are often 

 IOW T trees whose trunks are draped with a species of Batatas. 

 Here and there in the gapo is to be seen a Nutmeg tree 50 

 high or more, its branches nearly horizontal, but often bent up 

 abruptly into a vertical position about midway. 



FROM THE MOUTH OF THE PUKUS TO THAT OF THK ('<>.\i \ 



Very frequent in clumps is the line 1'ao Mulatto, 50 to 70 feet 

 high, with lead-coloured bark and large umbels of white ll' 



1 [Readers of Bates's Xalnnilist on /' 

 his farthest station on the river, that lie stayed her.' !i\ 

 than Spruce's visit), and that he speaks of it- luxurum 

 of natural history with the greatest enthusiasm, adi 

 not be sufficient to exhaust its treasures in zoolog) and 

 the numerous pebbly streams, and the ma-nil 

 surpassed anything he had seen during hi- 



