FLOODED FOHEST. 311 



low tlie tributary named, the liiglilands of Guiana on the 

 north, and those of Brazil on the south, crowd closer upon 

 the river, narrowing the valley, so that we no longer find 

 those extensive lowlands so characteristic of the river val- 

 ley above Santarem. The flooded tract is called gapo, 

 and the narrow, overarched channels intersecting the 

 half-submerged forest are termed igarajyes, which, in the 

 Lingoa Geral of the Indians, means canoe-paths. Some 

 of these run parallel to the Amazons for immense dis- 

 tances. Wallace, in his " Travels on the Amazons," says : 

 " From Santarem to Coari (a distance of eight hundred 

 miles), a j^erson may go by canoe in the wet season 

 without once entering into the main river. He will pass 

 through small streams, lakes, and swamps, and every- 

 where around him will stretch out an illimitable waste 

 of waters, but all' covered vs^ith a lofty virgin forest. For 

 days he will travel through this forest, scraping against 

 tree-trunks, and stooping to pass beneath the leaves of 

 prickly palms, now level vrith the water, though raised on 

 stems forty feet high." 



In the lagoons and quiet waters of these flooded re- 

 gions grows that wonder of the vegetable Avorld, the Vic- 

 toria Regia, the "Royal Water-Lily of South America." * 

 To Mr. J. F. Allen, a reliable authority in matters relative 

 to its discovery and introduction in the conservatories of 

 Europe and the United States, we are indebted for the 

 following historical material. It was first discovered, in 

 1801, by the celebrated botanist Hranke, upon the Rio 

 Marmore, a Bolivian tributary of the Madeira, who, as 

 says his fellow-traveller. Father La Cueva, upon first be- 

 holding the plant in its native waters, "fell on his knees 

 in a transport of admiration." The plant was next seen, 



* This plant is sometimes erroneously termed Victoria RcgiuK. 

 Schijmberg, believing it to belong to the genus iS^ymphttia, named it 

 Nymphcea Victoria : it, however, constitutes a distinct genus. 



