188 CARIPI. Chap. V. 



harmoniously as was here done by Nature. Palms, as 

 usual, formed a large proportion of the lower trees ; 

 some of them, however, shot up their slim stems to a 

 height of sixty feet or more, and waved their bunches 

 of nodding plumes between us and the sky. One kind 

 of palm, the Pashiuba (Iriartea exorhiza), which grows 

 here in greater abundance than elsewhere, was especially 

 attractive. It is not one of the tallest kinds, for when 

 full-grown its height is not more, perhaps, than forty 

 feet ; the leaves are somewhat less drooping, and the 

 leaflets much broader than in other species, so that they 

 have not that feathery appearance which those of some 

 palms have, but still they possess their own peculiar 

 beauty. My guide put me ashore in one place to show 

 me the roots of the Pashiuba. These grow above 

 ground, radiating from the trunk many feet above the 

 surface, so that the tree looks as if supported on stilts ; 

 and a person can, in old trees, stand upright amongst 

 the roots with the perpendicular stem wholly above his 

 head. It adds to the singularity of their appearance, 

 that these roots, which have the form of straight rods, 

 are studded with stout thorns, whilst the trunk of the 

 tree is quite smooth. The purpose of this curious 

 arrangement is, perhaps, similar to that of the buttress 

 roots already described ; namely, to recompense the 

 tree by root-growth above the soil for its inability, in 

 consequence of the competition of neighbouring roots, 

 to extend it underground. The great amount of 

 moisture and nutriment contained in the atmosphere, 

 may also favour these growths. 



On returning to the house, I found Petzell had been 



