THE PALMS OF AMERICA. 161 



the south and east, along the banks of the 

 Atabapo and the Upper Orinoco, where it gives 

 a pecuHar feature to the landscape. " In 

 those wild regions," says this eloquent traveller, 

 " we are involuntarily reminded of the assertion 

 of Lhinosus, that the country of palm trees was 

 the first abode of our species, and that man is 

 essentially palmivorous." * The thorn-armed 

 trunk of this palm is more than sixty feet high, 

 the leaves are winged, and the leaflets very thin 

 and frizzled towards the point. The fruit, how- 

 ever, is the remarkable and valuable portion of 

 the palm. Every cluster contains fifty to eighty 

 fruits, three of which grow on each tree ; conse- 

 quently, each palm yields from one hundred and 

 fifty to two hundred and forty frxiits, which are 

 nearly globular in shape, and at first of a rich 

 yellow colour, growing purple in proportion as 

 they ripen ; they are two or three inches thick, 

 and generally without a kernel. These fruits 

 furnish a farinaceous substance as yellow as the 

 yolk of an egg, slightly saccharine, and ex- 

 tremely nutritious. It is eaten like plantains 

 or potatoes, boiled or roasted in the ashes, and 

 affords an aliment as wholesome as it is agree- 

 able. The subsistence of the Indians of this 

 part of the American continent during several 



* Syitema Natura, vol. i. p. 24, 

 F 



