ME. E. SPBUCE ON INSEOT-MIGEATIONS IN SOUTH AMEEICA. 349 



ditions in the remote past ; and this is especially true of such 

 genera as Inga, Fithecolohium, LecytMs, and of many Myrtles and 

 Melastomes, Sapotads, &c. 



As an illustration of the features which tend to impress a cer- • 

 tain character of uniformity on the vegetation of the Amazon 

 region, I will take the case of a single tree, Bertliolletia excelsa 

 (H. & B.) — perhaps the noblest tree of the Amazon region, and 

 the most characteristic of its Virgin Forests — and briefly sketch 

 its distribution. In aspect and foliage it is not unlike a gigantic 

 Chestnut-tree ; and the seeds (the Para nuts of commerce), if not 

 much like chestnuts in their trigonous bony shell, are not very dif- 

 ferent in taste, whence the Brazilian name of the tree (Gastanheira), 

 and of the seeds (castanhas) . This tree is found almost throughout 

 the Amazon valley, both to north and south, chiefly wherever 

 there is a great depth of that red loam which it pleases M. Agassiz 

 to call " glacial drift." About Para itself there is no lack of it, 

 especially in the fine woods of Tauau ; and 1200 miles further to 

 the west it may be seen in some abundance on the very banks of 

 the Amazon, between Coary and Ega, at a part called Mutun- 

 coara (Curassow's Nest), where steep red earth-cliff's border the 

 river and forest ; while it extends many hundred miles up the 

 Puriis and other southern affluents. North of the main river j 

 have seen it at many points — for instance, in the forests of the 

 Trombetas and at the falls of the Aripecuni, in various places 

 along the Eio Negro, where one village (Castanheiro) takes its 

 name from it, and on the Casiquiari and Upper Orinoco, where it 

 was first seen and described by Humboldt and Bonpland. 



A magnificent palm, Maximiliana regia (Mart.) — Inaja of the 

 Amazon, Cocurito of the Orinoco — frequently accompanies the 

 SerthoUetia, and is still more widely and generally dispersed. I 

 have seen it as far to the south as in 7° lat. ; and in 5|° N. lat,, at 

 the cataracts of the Orinoco, it is still as abundant as on the Ama- 

 zon. It even climbs high on the granite hills. On one which I 

 ascended near the falls of the Eio Negro, an Inaja palm occupied 

 the very apex, at 1500 feet above the river ; and with the tele- 

 scope I have distinctly recognized this palm at a much greater 

 elevation on Duida and other mountains. Both the tree and the 

 palm range to northward and southward beyond the limits of my 

 own explorations ; and there are a few other arborescent plants 

 which stretch all through South America, from the base of the 

 coast-range of Caracas (or even in a few cases from the "West- 

 India Islands) to the region of the river Plate ; but these are chiefly 



