HEIGHT OF TREES 



45 



cup falls with a crash, scattering the nuts over the ground. 

 The tree which yields the nut (Lecythis ollaria), is of im- 

 mense height. It is closely allied to the Brazil-nut tree 

 (Bertholletia excelsa), whose seeds are also enclosed in 

 large woody vessels ; but these have no lid, and fall 

 entire to the ground. This is the reason why the one 

 kind of nut is so much dearer than the other. The 

 Sapucaya is not less abundant, probably, than the Ber- 

 tholletia, but its nuts in falling are scattered about and 

 eaten by wild animals ; whilst the full capsules of Brazil- 

 nuts are collected entire by the natives. 



What attracted us chiefly were the colossal trees. 

 The general run of trees had not remarkably thick stems ; 

 the great and uniform height to which they grow without 

 emitting a branch, was a much more noticeable feature 

 than their thickness ; but at intervals of a furlong or so 

 a veritable giant towered up. Only one of these monstrous 

 trees can grow within a given space ; it monopolizes the 

 domain, and none but individuals of much inferior size 

 can find a footing near it. The cylindrical trunks of these 

 larger trees were generally about 20 to 25 feet in circum- 

 ference. Von Martins mentions having measured trees 

 in the Para district belonging to various species (Sym- 

 phonia coccinea, Lecythis sp. and Cratseva Tapia), which 

 were 50 to 60 feet in girth at the point where they become 

 cylindrical. The height of the vast column-like stems 

 could not be less than 100 feet from the ground to their 

 lowest branch. Mr. Leavens, at the saw-mills, told me 

 they frequently squared logs for sawing 100 feet long, of 

 the Pao d'Arco and the Massaranduba. The total height 

 of these trees, stem and crown together, may be estimated 

 at from 180 to 200 feet : where one of them stands, the 

 vast dome of foliage rises above the other forest trees as 

 a domed cathedral does above the other buildings in a city. 



A very remarkable feature in these trees is the growth 

 of buttress-shaped projections around the lower part of 

 their stems. The spaces between these buttresses, which 

 are generally thin walls of wood, form spacious chambers, 

 and may be compared to stalls in a stable : some of them 

 are large enough to hold half-a-dozen persons. The pur- 

 pose of these structures is as obvious, at the first glance, 

 as that of the similar props of brickwork which support a 

 high wall. They are not peculiar to one species, but are 

 common to most of the larger forest trees. Their nature 



