S4 West American Sci enlist. 



The valley of the Amazon rejoices in an infinite variety of these 

 beautiful trees. Amono^ them a foremost place must be given to 

 the fan-leaved palm which abound in the islets and on the banks 

 of the mighty river and its tributaries. These stems are huge 

 smooth cylinders, three feet in diameter, and about a hundred feet 

 high. Their crowns consist of enormous clusters of fan-shaped 

 leaves, whose stalks alone measure seven to ten feet in length. 



Nothing in the vegetable world, we are to^d, can be more im- 

 posing than this grove of palms. No underwood obstructs the 

 view of the long perspective of towering columns, which forces 

 on the spectator's mind the remembrance of long-drawn aisles of 

 Gothic cathedrals. The crowns, densely packed together at an 

 immense height overhead, shut out the rays of the sun; and the 

 gloomy solitude beneath, where every sound has a strange rever- 

 beration, can be compared to nothmg so well as a solemn temple. 

 In such a scene it is meet that the soul, " on Devotion's wing," 

 should mount to God! 



Humboldt christened the Mauritia flexuosa or fan-leaved pahn, 

 the " Tree of Life." It is the chief, almost the only nourishment, 

 he says, of the unconquered nation of the Guaranis, at the mouth 

 of the Orinoco, who skillfully stretch their mats — woven ironi the 

 nerves of the leaves— from one trunk to another, and during the 

 rainy season, when the Delta is inundated, live like apes in the 

 tops of the trees 



These habitations are partially roofed with mud; the women 

 light their household fires on a flooring of the same material ; and 

 the traveler, ascending the river at night, gazes astonished on the 

 hundred spiral shafts of flame and smoke which seem kindled in 

 the very air! 



But not only with a habitation does the Mauritia supply these 

 savages ; it also feeds them. Before the flowers are developed, 

 the trunk afTords them a farinaceous pith, like sago; the sap pro- 

 vides wine and the 'joys of Bacchus; " the tresh fruits, covered 

 with scales like fir-cones, yield them nourishment, whether they 

 eat them after the full development of their saccharine principle, 

 or when they simply contain an abundant pulp 



The fruit was first taken to England by Sir Walter Raleigh. 

 The tree does not attain maturity in less than 120 or 150 years. 



The assai palm (Euterpe oloracea) deserves mention on ac- 

 count of its edible properties. The fruit, which is perfectly round, 

 and about as large as a cherry, contains but a small quantity of 

 pulp, lying between the hard kernel and the skin. With the ad- 

 dition of water, the pulp forms a thick, violet-colored beverage, 

 which stains the lips like blackberries, and is universally drank by 

 the Indians of the Tocantins. The tree itself rises, without knot 

 or blemish, to a great height. The outer part of the stem is as 

 hard and as tough as horn , split into narrow planks it is used for 

 the walls and flooring of the Indian huts. 



