342 THE LOWER AMAZONS. Chap. VII. 



head of fronds with narrow leaflets of the same dark 

 green hue as the rest of the forest. The stem is smooth, 

 and about two inches in diameter ; its height is not 

 more than twelve to fifteen feet ; it does not, therefore, 

 rise amongst the masses of foliage of the exogenous trees, 

 so as to form a feature in the landscape, like the broad- 

 leaved Murumurti and Urucuri, the slender Assai, the 

 tall Jauari, and the fan-leaved Muriti of the banks of the 

 Amazons. On the shores of the main river the mass of 

 the forest is composed, besides palms, of Leguminosse, 

 or trees of the bean family, in endless variety as to 

 height, shape of foliage, flowers, and fruit ; of silk-cotton 

 trees, colossal nut-trees (Lecythidese), and Cecropise, the 

 underwood and water-frontage consisting in great part 

 of broad-leaved Musacese, Marantacese, and succulent 

 grasses : all of which are of light shades of green. The 

 forests of the Eio Negi'o are almost destitute of these 

 large-leaved plants and grasses, which give so rich an 

 appearance to the vegetation wherever they grow ; the 

 margins of the stream being clothed with bushes or low 

 trees, having the same gloomy monotonous aspect as 

 the mangroves of the shores of creeks near the Atlantic. 

 The uniformly small but elegantly-leaved exogenous 

 trees, which constitute the mass of the forest, consist in 

 great part of members of the Laurel, Myrtle, Bignonia- 

 ceous, and Rubiaceous orders. The soil is generally a 

 stiff loam, whose chief component part is the Tabatinga 

 clay, which also forms low cliffs on the coast in some 

 places, where it overlies strata of coarse sandstone. 

 This kind of soil and the same geological formation 

 prevail, as we have seen, in many places on the banks of 



