132 NOTES OF A BOTANIST CHAP, xvn 



Memoir on the Equatorial American Palms. I 

 here quote the incident :- 



" On my voyage up the Huallaga in May 1855, 

 I gathered one morning some fully formed fruits of 

 Yarina, and as they were infested by stinging ants, 

 I laid them near the fire, where our breakfast was 

 being cooked, to disperse the ants, and then plunged 

 into the forest in quest of other objects. During 

 my absence the Indians, not knowing I wanted to 

 preserve the fruits, struck their cutlasses into them, 

 and finding the seeds still tender enough to be 

 eaten, munched them all up and thus destroyed my 

 specimens. I never again saw the Yarina in good 

 condition, except when I and my attendants were 

 already laden with specimens of other plants." 



Two species very closely allied (Pkytelep/ias 

 macrocarpa and P. microcarpa) are spread over the 

 Eastern Andes, and Spruce described another 

 species (P. equatorialis] from the Western Andes 

 of Ecuador, which differs in having a trunk some- 

 times reaching 20 feet high. The leaves, of a fine 

 deep green colour, are from 30 to 40 feet long. 

 The plate here given is from a photograph taken 

 on the river Ucayali.] 



