356 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 



is not visible, by the varied tints of the foliage, and 

 by the trees rarely equalling those of the Virgin 

 Forest in height sometimes, indeed, beginning on 

 the water's edge as low bushes, thence gradually 

 growing higher as they advance inland, until at the 

 limit of inundations they mingle with the primeval 

 woods, and are almost equally lofty by the greater 

 proportion of herbaceous lianas which drape the 

 trees and often form a curtain-like frontage and 

 by the abundance of Palms, whereof the taller kinds 

 usually surpass the exogenous trees in height, and 

 (the Fan palms especially) often stretch in long 

 avenue-like lines along, or parallel to, the shore. 

 On some black-water rivers, such as the Pacimoni, 

 the Atabapo, and the Rio Negro in some parts of 

 its course, the breadth of inundated land is entirely 

 clad with bushes and small trees of very equable 

 height, on the skirts of which the Virgin Forest 

 rises abruptly to a height more than twice as great. 

 This is called by the natives " caatinga-gapo." 



Besides these differences of aspect, the natives 

 will tell you there are other more intrinsic ones ; for 

 instance, that the riparial trees have softer and more 

 perishable timber, as well as inferior fruits ; while 

 the caatingas, with a far greater show of blossom, 

 have hardly any edible fruit at all, and very few 

 indeed of the trees rise to the magnitude of timber 

 trees. And yet, when the constituent plants of the 

 different classes of forest come to be compared to- 

 gether, they are found to correspond to a degree 

 quite unexpected ; for although the species are 

 almost entirely diverse, the differences are rarely 

 more than specific. It is only in the caatingas that 

 a few genera, each including several species, seem 



