FROM MANAOS to TARAPOTO 3 
large corymbs of pretty purple flowers. On one 
clayey slope was a large bed of Umiri (Humirium 
sp.) with ripe fruit, which the numerous cattle 
(belonging chiefly to the Padre) pick up as they fall. 
Two Monimiaceae, one with very large Melastoma- 
like leaves and large fruits, I have not seen before. 
The other is very near a Uaupes species.^ 
Notes on the Vegetation of the Solimoes 
The sloping banks clad with long grass form a strong contrast 
to those of the Rio Negro. On the islands the chief vegetation is 
Salix Humboldtiajia and a Cecropia, with a rather inelegant 
bamboo supporting itself on them. The white trunks of the 
trees are very remarkable — actually white with a crust of rudi- 
mentary lichens, especially those of Cecropia. The foliage at 
this season is rather ragged and scanty, but when the rising or 
setting sun illuminates the white skeleton, the dots of green on 
the extremities of the branchlets have a pretty effect. This is 
particularly noticeable in places where the winds have broken 
off the tops of the trees. 
Of palms the Murumurii is abundant. An elegant Bactris 
(probably B. conci?ina, Mart.) about i8 feet high grows in broad 
patches. It is abundant at Yurimaguas on the Huallaga. 
A Loranthus with large red flowers tipped with yellow grows 
on many different trees — very often on Imba-uba and a species 
of Madura. Several Ingas are in flower, and Triplaris siiri- 
namensis (Polyonacese) is frequent. The Arrow-reed abounds 
on low coasts and islands, and in similar places there are often 
low trees whose trunks are draped with a species of Batatas. 
Here and there in the gapo is to be seen a Nutmeg tree 50 feet 
high or more, its branches nearly horizontal, but often bent up 
abruptly into a vertical position about midway. 
From the Mouth of the Purus to that of the Coary 
Very frequent in clumps is the fine Pao Mulatto, 50 to 70 feet 
high, with lead-coloured bark and large umbels of white flowers. A 
^ [Readers of Bates's Nattiralist on the A viazojisWiW remember that this was 
his farthest station on the river, that he stayed here five months (a year later 
than Spruce's visit), and that he speaks of its luxuriance in every department 
of natural history with the greatest enthusiasm, adding, that five years would 
not be sufiacient to exhaust its treasures in zoology and botany. In particular, 
the numerous pebbly streams, and the magnificent vegetation on their banks, 
surpassed anything he had seen during his ten years of forest ramblings. — Ed.] 
