The Giant Bdssu. 543 



wliich exliale the odor of miguonnette. On this accoiant 

 it is much sought after by the Moyobambinos, who call 

 it " Sangapilla." August is the best time for collect- 

 ing it. 



Geonoma. — The little Palms comprising this genus are 

 often found in the shade of the Miriti and other giants, 

 and range throughout the Amazonian plain and up the 

 Andes to 4000 feet. Their reed -like stems are usually 

 from six to ten feet high, and their smooth, polished straw- 

 colored cuticle is marked with rings. The flowers are yel- 

 low or purple, and the fruit is a small, dry berry. G. ha- 

 culifera, Poit., known in Brazil as " Ubim," is frequent in 

 the damp forests about Para. Its simple forked leaves, 

 three or four feet long, are used for thatching. G. jpani- 

 culigera, Mart., found far up the Negro and Japura, is be- 

 tween twelve and fifteen feet high, with about twenty leaves 

 three and a half feet long. G.pauciflora, Mart., is another 

 very slender Palm, fifteen feet high, with pinnate leaves 

 a yard long, bearing not over ten pairs of pinnae. It grows 

 near Manaos. G. discolor, Spruce, is a low Palm in the 

 neighborhood of Santarem, with a stem six feet long and 

 closely ringed, pinnated leaves a yard long, and from six- 

 teen to twenty-two pairs of pinnae. G. tuherculata, Spruce, 

 near the mouth of the N'egro, has four or five leaves about 

 a foot long, and with only two pairs of leaflets. G. Para- 

 ensis, Spruce, is a Para Palm having not over ten pairs of 

 pinnae, fourteen inches by one in length. Eight more spe- 

 cies of Geonoma inhabit the Upper Rio Negro. 



Manicakia saccifera, Gaert., or " Bussii," common about 

 the mouth of the Amazons on flooded lands, looks at a dis- 

 tance like a rigid plantain, having immense, stiff, simple 

 leaves, of a pale-green color, and twenty-five feet long by 

 six feet wide, the largest entire leaves of any Palm. The 

 stem is deeply ringed, and not over twelve feet high. It 



