THE GAPO. 311 



leaves cut into ribbons ; the jupati, with plume-like leaves 

 forty feet and upwards in length, graceful in the extreme, 

 starting almost from the ground. Here is seen also the 

 bussu, with stiff entire leaves, also of great length, growing 

 upright from a short stem, close together, and serrated along 

 their edges. Higher up still, while the palms become less 

 numerous, other trees take their places. Among them ap- 

 pears conspicuous the majestic sumaumera, its flat dome 

 rounded, but not conical, towering high above the forest. 

 The branches of this tree are greatly ramified and knotty, 

 and the bark is white. Conspicuous, too, is the taxi, with 

 brown buds and white flowers ; while the margin of the water 

 is thickly fringed by a belt of arrow-grass, or f rexes so called 

 by the Portuguese six feet in height. Its name is given in 

 consequence of being used by the Indians in making arrows 

 for their blowpipes. 



Amid this wonderful mass of forest vegetation grows an 

 intricate tracery of lianas and climbing sipos, some running- 

 round and round the trees, and holding them in a close em- 

 brace ; others hanging from branch to branch in rich festoons, 

 covered with starlike flowers, or dropping in long lines to 

 the ground, often to take root and shoot upwards again 

 round a neighbouring stem, or drooping like the loose cordage 

 of a ship swinging in the breeze. Often they form so dense 

 and impenetrable a thicket from the ground upwards that a 

 way must be cleared with an axe to proceed even a short 

 distance from the banks towards the inner recesses of the 

 forest. 



THE GAPO. 



On the Gapo, or submerged lands, however, a considerable 

 difference in the vegetation appears. The palms are here 



