The Paxiuba Palm. 541 



gelatinous and bitter. /. exorrhiza, Mart,, called " Pax- 

 iiiba " in Brazil, and " Huacra-pona " in Peru, is the most 

 common form, ranging across the entire breadth of the 

 forest, being equally abundant at the mouth of the Am- 

 azons and in the moist valleys of the Andes. It is 

 often not more than forty feet high, and the leaves are 

 not so drooping as in many other Palms. The /. ven- 

 tricosa, Mart., called " Barriguda " in Brazil, and " Tarapo- 

 to"in Peru, is distinguished from all others by a curious 

 swelling midway of its trunk. It is a solitary Palm, rising 

 from sixty to one hundred feet. A specimen sixty-three 

 feet high was eight inches in diameter at the base and twen- 

 ty inches at the swelling. The belly, however, is often 

 much longer ; and Dr. Spruce says that he has seen canoes 

 extemporized from it by splitting off lengthwise a little less 

 than half of it, hollowing out the remainder, and stopping 

 up the ends with clay. The cone of roots often stands 

 six feet high, sometimes twelve. The leaves, usiially six in 

 number, are eighteen feet long ; and the pinnae are cune- 

 ate-flabellif orm, with ten plaits. The dark-colored berries 

 are nearly an inch in diameter. It grows on lands not in- 

 undated, and ranges from tlie Rio l^egro westward, ascend- 

 ing the Andes 5000 feet. A third species, /. deltoidea, 

 R. et P., occurs on the slopes of the Peruvian Andes ; and 

 a fourth, /. setigera, Mart., on the Middle Amazons, Japu- 

 ra, and Negro. The latter, called " Paxiuba-miri," is from 

 ten to twenty feet high and two inches in diameter, with 

 leaves five feet in length, having seven pairs of pinnae, 

 each pinna eleven by three and a half inches. It is of 

 this slender Palm that the Indians commonly make their 

 blow-guns. 



Wettinia. — These Palms resemble the Iriarteas, but dif- 

 fer in having hairy fruit and long floral envelopes. They 

 ai"e found only on the skirts of the mountains, as along 



