356 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
is not visible, by the varied tints of the foliage, and 
by the trees rarely equalling those of the Virgin 
Forest in height — sometimes, indeed, beginning on 
the water's edge as low bushes, thence gradually 
growing higher as they advance inland, until at the 
limit of inundations they mingle with the primeval 
woods, and are almost equally lofty — by the greater 
proportion of herbaceous lianas which drape the 
trees and often form a curtain-like frontaoe — and 
by the abundance of Palms, whereof the taller kinds 
usually surpass the exogenous trees in height, and 
(the Fan palms especially) often stretch in long 
avenue-like lines along, or parallel to, the shore. 
On some black-water rivers, such as the Pacimoni, 
the Atabapo, and the Rio Negro in some parts of 
its course, the breadth of inundated land is entirely 
clad with bushes and small trees of very equable 
height, on the skirts of which the Virgin Forest 
rises abruptly to a height more than twice as great. 
This is called by the natives " caatinga-gapo." 
Besides these differences of aspect, the natives 
will tell you there are other more intrinsic ones ; for 
instance, that the riparial trees have softer and more 
perishable timber, as well as inferior fruits ; while 
the caatingas, with a far greater show of blossom, 
have hardly any edible fruit at all, and very few 
indeed of the trees rise to the magnitude of timber 
trees. And yet, when the constituent plants of the 
different classes of forest come to be compared to- 
gether, they are found to correspond to a degree 
quite unexpected ; for, although the species are 
almost entirely diverse, the differences are rarely 
more than specific. It is only in the caatingas that 
a few genera, each including several species, seem 
