358 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
the very banks of the Amazon, between Coary and 
Ega, at a part called Mutiincoara (Curassow's Nest), 
where steep red earth-cliffs border the river and 
forest ; while it extends many hundred miles up 
the Purus and other southern affluents. North of 
the main river I have seen it at many points — for 
instance, in the forests of the Trombetas and at the 
falls of the Aripecurii ; in various places along the 
Rio Negro, where one village (Castanheiro) takes 
its name from it ; and on the Casiquiari and Upper 
Orinoco, where it was first seen and described by 
Humboldt and Bonpland. 
A magnificent palm, Maximiliana regia (Mart.) 
— Inaja of the Amazon, Cocurito of the Orinoco — 
frequently accompanies the Bertholletia, and is still 
more widely and generally dispersed. I have seen 
it as far to the south as in 7"^ lat. ; and in 5|-' N. 
lat., at the cataracts of the Orinoco, it is still as 
abundant as on the Amazon. It even climbs high 
on the granite hills. On one which I ascended 
near the falls of the Rio Negro, an Inaja palm 
occupied the very apex, at 1500 feet above the 
river ; and with the telescope I have distinctly 
recognised this Palm at a much greater elevation 
on Duida and other mountains. Both the tree and 
the Palm range to northward and southward beyond 
the limits of my ow^n explorations ; and there are 
a few other arborescent plants which stretch all 
through South America, from the base of the coast- 
range of Caracas (or even in a few cases from the 
West India Islands) to the region of the river 
Plate ; but these are chiefly trees such as sprinkle 
the savannas, or are gathered into groves, along 
both the northern and southern borders of the 
