76 WONDERS OF THE TROPICAL FORESTS. 
Besides the Height of the shafi;., the positiou of tlie 
leaves serves cbietly to impart a more or less majestic 
character to the palras i those with drooping leaves being 
far less stately than those whose fronds shoot more or 
less upwards to the skies. Nothing can exceed the 
elegance of the Jagua palm, which along with the 
splendid Cucurito adorns the granite rocks in tlie rapids 
of the Orinoco at Atures. The frond.Sj which aro but few 
in number, rise almost perpendicularly sixteen feet high, 
from the top of the lofty columnar 
shaft., and their feathery leatiets of 
a thin and grass-like texture play 
lightly round the tall leaf-stalks, 
slowly bending in the breeze. In 
the palms with a feathei-y foliage, the 
leaf-stalks rise either immediately 
from a brown ligueous trunk (cocoa- 
nut, date), or, as in the beautiful 
Palraa Ileal of the Ilavana, from a 
Btnooth, slender, and grass-green 
shaft, placed like an additional column 
upon the dark-coloured trunk. In 
the fan-palms, the crown frequently 
rests upon a layer of dried leaves, 
which impart a severe character to 
the tree. 
YRLUTTEA vE^^luco4^Ju The form of the trunk also varies 
greatly; sometimes it is extremely 
short, as in CJumwrops hum His; and sometimes, as in 
the ratans, assumes a bush-rope appearance. In eome 
species it is smooth and unarmetl, in others rugged or 
bristling with spines. In the American Yriarteas it rests 
npon a number of roots rising above the ground. Thus 
the F. exon-Iiha frequently stands upon a dozen or more 
supports, embmcing a circumference of twenty feet ; and 
the Y, i-cnfricosa is still more curious, ns the spindle- 
shaped trunk, which at both ends is scarce a foot thick, 
