302 



VEGETATION OF 



been ascertained with 'much accuracy. The open plains of 

 Caguan have been supposed much more extensive than they 

 really are ; but I have very nearly determined their limits to 

 the south and east, by the observations I made, and the 

 information I obtained in my voyage up the Uaupes. Again, 

 on the Uaycali there is a district marked on the maps as the 

 " Pampas del Sacramento," which has been supposed to be an 

 open plain ; but the banks of the Amazon up to the mouth of 

 the Uaycali are clothed with thick forest, and Messrs. Smyth 

 and Lowe, who crossed the Pampa in two places, found no 

 open plains ; and from their observations and those of Lieut. 

 Mawe we must extend the forest district up to near Moya- 

 bamba, west of the Huallaga, and to the foot of the mountains 

 east of Pasco and Tarma. I v/as informed by a native of 

 Ecuador, well acquainted with the country, that the Napo, 

 Tigre, Pastaza, and the adjacent rivers all flow through dense 

 forest, which extends up even to Baeza and Canelos and over 

 all the lower slopes of the Andes. Tschudi informs us that 

 the forest districts commence on all the north and east slopes 

 of the Andes of Peru, near Huanta, and at Urubamba north 

 of Cuzco. I have learnt from a gentleman, a native of La Paz, 

 that immediately on crossing the Bolivian Andes from that 

 city and from Oropessa and Santa Cruz, you enter the great 

 forests, which extend over all the tributaries of the Madeira. 

 Traders up the Purus and all the southern branches of the 

 Upper Amazon, neither meet with, nor hear accounts of, any 

 open land, so that there is little doubt but that the extent here 

 pointed out is one vast, ever-verdant, unbroken forest. 



The forests of the Amazon are distinguished from those of 

 most other countries, by the great variety of species of trees 

 composing them. Instead of extensive tracts covered with 

 pines, or oaks, or beeches, we scarcely ever see two individuals 

 of the same species together, except in certain cases, principally 

 among the Palms. A great extent of flooded land about the 

 mouth of the Amazon, is covered with the Miriti Palms 

 {Mauritia flexuosa and M, vim/era), and in many places the 

 Assai {Euterpe edulis) is almost equally abundant. Generally, 

 however, the same species of tree is repeated only at distant 

 intervals. On a road for ten miles through the forest near 

 Para, there are only two specimens of the Masseranduba, or 

 Cow-tree, and all through the adjoining district they are 



