540 



The Andes and the Amazons. 



feature to the views 

 on the Lower Ama- 

 zons. It is common- 

 ly known as the "As- 

 sai;" but the proper 

 native name of the 

 tree itself is " Jussareira ;" while 

 the fruit is called " Jussara," and 

 the popular drink prepared from 

 it is assai. Its leaves are made of 

 seventy-eight pairs of pinnse, each 

 pinna being about two and a half 

 feet long. The tree grows on rich, 

 moist soils from Para to Ega. Two 

 other Euterpes, known as " Chon- 

 ta " and " Chontilla," so slender 

 that canes are made of them, oc- 

 cur high up on the Peruvian An- 

 des. Another species, E. caatinga, 

 Wall., peculiar in spreading its 

 leaves horizontally, drooping them 

 merely at the points, abounds up 

 the Rio Negro, near the Venezu- 

 elan frontier. Its leaves have for- 

 ty-five pairs of pinnje. 



Iriaetea. — These noble yet sin- 

 gular Palms are easily recognized 

 by the following characters: the 

 stem is buttressed {i. e., supported) 

 on a cone of emersed prickly roots 

 resembling the spokes of a half- ^ssai paim (£«fe.^. o;.rac.a). 



opened umbrella, so that the tree looks as if standing 

 on stilts ; the leaflets are fan-shaped and abruptly trunc- 

 ate ; the spathes are many ; and the beri-y or drupe is 



