AMAZONIAN VEGETATION 365 
vitreous); Podostemeae ; Polygoneae; Amarantaceae ; 
Piperaceee ; Lauraceae (few) ; Chrysobalaneae (often 
much infested) ; Combretaceae ; Myrtaceae (rarely 
on true Myrtles, but a great pest to the large hand- 
some flowers of the sub-orders Barringtonieae and 
Lecythideae); Passifloreae; Cucurbitaceae ; Rubiaceae 
(few out of the vast number of Amazon species) ; 
Compositae (all weeds) ; Boragineae ; Verbenaceae ; 
Bignoniaceae. Besides these, there are other orders 
which contain a few species with mild juices, and 
leaves (and even wood) not too tough for a cater- 
pillar's jaws, which are doubtless chosen by certain 
species of butterflies as food for their progeny ; and 
nearly all the very large flowers are apt to be 
plagued by caterpillars, as well as by the grubs of 
flies and beetles.^ 
Some caterpillars seem to have a decided taste 
for bitters ; and narcotics are rarely objected to ; 
indeed, I should say that most insects are decidedly 
partial to them., while bees and wasps seem to have 
a positive pleasure in getting drunk. The very few 
phyllophagous beetles whose habits have come 
under my notice feed on narcotic plants. At the 
falls of the Rio Negro, just south of the Equator, a 
common weed in the village of Sao Gabriel is 
Solanmn jamaicense, Sw., growing (when not dis- 
turbed) to the size of a currant-bush, and bearing 
large, angular, soft, woolly leaves. In February 1852 
there appeared swarms of a large black beetle wdiose 
corpulent abdomen was barely half-covered by the 
elytra (whence I suppose it an ally of our Meloes), 
^ The above list has no further value than that of indicating, so far as my 
notes and recollections serve me, the kinds of plants which I have seen most 
maltreated by caterpillars in the Amazon region. 
