] 36 PHYSIOGNOJfY OF PLANTS. 



(85 to 106 English feet high), adorns the cataracts of Atures 

 and Maypures, and is occasionally found also on the lonely 

 banks of the Cassiquiare. The smooth slender stems of the 

 Jagua, rising to between 64 and 75 English feet, appear 

 above the dense mass of foliage of other kinds of trees from 

 amidst which they spring like raised colonnades, their airy 

 summits contrasting beautifully with the thickly-leaved 

 species of Ceiba, and with the forest of Laurinese, Calophyl- 

 lum, and different species of Amyris which surround them. 

 The leaves of the Jagua, which are few in number (scarcely 

 so many as seven or eight), are sixteen or seventeen feet 

 long, and rise almost vertically into the air ; their extremities 

 are curled like plumes ; the ultimate divisions or leaflets, 

 having only a thin grass-like parenchyma, flutter lightly 

 and airily round the slowly balancing central leaf-stalks. 

 In all palms the inflorescence springs from the trunk itself, 

 and below the place where the leaves originate ; but the 

 manner in which this takes place modifies the physiognomic 

 character. In a few species only (as the Corozo del Sinu), 

 the spathe (or sheath enclosing the flowers and fruits), rises 

 vertically, and the fruits stand erect, forming a kind of 

 thyrsus, like the fruits of the Bromelia : in most species of 

 palms the spathes (which are sometimes smooth and some- 

 times rough and armed with formidable spines) are pendent ; 

 in a few species the male flowers are of a dazzling whiteness, 

 and in such cases the flower-covered spadix, when fully 

 developed, shines from afar. In most species of palms the 

 male flowers are yellowish, closely crowded, and appear almost 

 withered when they disengage themselves from the spathe. 



