358 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 



the very banks of the Amazon, between Coary and 

 Ega, at a part called Mutuncoara (Curassow's Nest), 

 where steep red earth -cliffs border the river and 

 forest ; while it extends many hundred miles up 

 the Puriis and other southern affluents. North of 

 the main river I have seen it at many points for 

 instance, in the forests of the Trombetas and at the 

 falls of the Aripecuni ; in various places along the 

 Rio Negro, where one village (Castanheiro) takes 

 its name from it ; and on the Casiquiari and Upper 

 Orinoco, where it was first seen and described by 

 Humboldt and Bonpland. 



A magnificent palm, Maximiliana regia (Mart.) 

 -Inaja of the Amazon, Cocurito of the Orinoco 

 frequently accompanies the Bertholletia, and is still 

 more widely and generally dispersed. I have seen 

 it as far to the south as in 7 lat. ; and in 5^- N. 

 lat., at the cataracts of the Orinoco, it is still as 

 abundant as on the Amazon. It even climbs high 

 on the granite hills. On one which I ascended 

 near the falls of the Rio Negro, an Inaja palm 

 occupied the very apex, at 1500 feet above the 

 river ; and with the telescope I have distinctly 

 recognised this Palm at a much greater elevation 

 on Duida and other mountains. Both the tree and 

 the Palm range to northward and southward beyond 

 the limits of my own explorations ; and there are 

 a few other arborescent plants which stretch all 

 through South America, from the base of the coast- 

 range of Caracas (or even in a few cases from the 

 West India Islands) to the region of the river 

 Plate ; but these are chiefly trees such as sprinkle 

 the savannas, or are gathered into groves, along 

 both the northern and southern borders of the 



