203 SPECIES OF PALMS. 





formed heretofore our species Alfonsia, yielding oil in abun- 

 dance; the Cocos butyracea, called here palma dolce or 

 palma real, and very different from the palma real of the 

 island of Cuba; the palma amarya, with fan-leaves that 

 serve to cover the roofs of houses, and the latta* resembling 

 the small piritu palm-tree of the Orinoco. This variety of 

 palm-trees was remarked by the first Conquistadores.f The 

 Alfonsia, or rather the species of Elais, which we had no- 

 where else seen, is only six feet high, with a very large 

 trunk ; and the fecundity of its spathes is such that they con- 

 tain more than 200,000 flowers. Although a great number 

 of those flowers (one tree bearing 600,000 at the same tnz'0 

 never come to maturity, J the soil remains covered with a 

 thick layer of fruits. "We often made a similar observation 

 under the shade of the mauritia palm-tree, the Cocos buty- 

 racea, the Seje, and the Pihiguao of the Atabapo. No other 

 family of arborescent plants is so prolific in the develop- 

 ment of the organs of flowering. The almond of the 

 Corozo del Sinu is peeled in the water. The thick layer of 

 oil that swims in the water is purified by boiling, and yields 

 the butter of Corozo (manteca de Corozo), which is thicker 

 than the oil of the cocoa-tree, and serves to light churches 

 and houses. The palm-trees of the section of Cocoinies of 

 Mr. Brown, are the olive-trees of the tropical regions. As 



thick, glossy trunk, is the Elaeis melanococca of Martius (Palm., p. 64, 

 tab. xxxiii., lv.). I cannot believe it to be identical with the Elaeis 

 guineensis (Herbal of Congo River, p. 37) since it vegetates spontaneously 

 in the forests of the Rio Sinu. The Corozo of Caripe is slender, small, and 

 covered with thorns ; it approaches the Cocos aculeata of Jacquin. The 

 Corozo de los Marinas of the valley of Cauca, one of the tallest palm, 

 trees, is the Cocus butyracea of Linnaeus. 



* Perhaps of the species of Aiphanes. 



t Pedro de Cieca de Leon, a native of Seville, who travelled in 1531, at 

 the age of thirteen years, in the countries I have described, observes that 

 "Las tierras comarcanas del Rio Cenii y del Golfo de Uraba estan llena 

 de unos palmares muy grandes y espessos, que son unos arboles gruessos, 

 y llevan unas ramas como palma de datiles." [The lands adjacent to the 

 Rio Cenu and the Gulf of Uraba, are full of very tall, spreading palm- 

 trees. They are of vast size, and are branched like the date-palm.] See 

 La Cronica del Peru nuevamenta escrita (Antwerp, 1554), pp. 21, 204. 



J I have carefully counted how many flowers are contained in a square 

 inch on each amentum, from 100 to 120 of which ate ibuiid united iu oni 

 spathe. 



