538 The Andes and the Amazons. 



shore and the altitude of 11,000 feet. A few species rauge 

 from the roots of the Andes across the whole plain to the 

 Atlantic ; but many are restricted to certain tributaries, 

 to the Lower Amazons, the Solimoens, or the Maranon. 

 Palms are far more abundant on the east than on the west 

 side of the Andes, and .the species are entirely distinct. 

 Sometimes, when the vitality of a Palm is exhausted, the 

 crown first withers and falls, and the soft interior of the 

 trunk gradually rots, and is eaten away by termites, until 

 nothing is left but a thin shell ; and when that can no 

 longer bear its own weight, it collapses with a crash like 

 that of a gunshot. 



The following are the most important Palms observed 

 in ascending the Amazons and its chief aflluents.* For 

 convenience, we may roughly divide them into those hav- 

 ing fan-shaped, or flabellate, leaves, and those having feath- 

 ery, or pinnate, leaves. The former are considered lower 



in rank : 



§ 1. Fan-leaved Palms. 



Matteitia. — This group may be distinguished from all 

 others, not only by their leaves, but also by their scaly 

 fruits and pinnately hranched spadices. There are at least 

 a dozen species on the River. The M. fiexuosa, L., the 

 "Miriti" of Brazilians, and "Achual" or "Aguashi " of 

 Peruvians, is the most universally-distributed Palm in the 

 valley, abounding from the shores of the Atlantic to the 

 altitude of 3000 feet on the Andes of Peru, Ecuadoi*, and 

 New Granada. It is a social Palm, forming groves along 

 the low shores, at the mouths of tributaries, and about 



* I am glad to say, because it vouches for their correctness, that most of 

 the statements in this chapter are derived from the valuable but well-nigh in- 

 accessible memoir published in the Linnean Society'' s Journal, vol. xi., the 

 result of eleven years of research (1849-1860) in Equatorial America, by 

 Richard Spruce, the most accomplished botanist on the Amazons since Von 

 Martius left it. 



