i6o 
NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
CHAP. 
found their ascent obstructed by a dense growth of 
coarse grasses quite similar to those of Santarem, 
I should expect equally to find there Curatella 
americaita, Made a fistulifera, Salvertia vockysioides, 
and other plants of Central and Southern Brazil. 
And if there are, as the natives assert, other bare 
hills to northward of those of Monte Alegre, then 
there is probably a break right across the Amazonian 
forest, in longitude 54^-55° W. from the granitic 
region of Central Brazil to that of the frontiers of 
Dutch Guayana, of open hilly ground, wooded in 
some intervening valleys and hollows, but of a quite 
different character from the remainder of the densely 
forest-clad Amazon valley. 
Lofty primeval forest was rare near Santarem. 
To reach any such I must penetrate by land to the 
sources of the Irura and Mahica ; or go by water a 
few miles down the Amazon and then up some 
igarape. I shall mention only a few of the forest 
trees which are notable for their products, and con- 
clude this chapter with a notice of some of the 
edible wild fruits of Santarem. 
Itailba, i.e. Stone tree, so called from the hard- 
ness of its wood, which is more esteemed for ship- 
building than any other on the Amazon, is a noble 
tree of the family of Laurels, which was undescribed 
until my specimens of its flowers and fruits afforded 
materials for its determination. There are two 
varieties of it, the preta or black [Acrodiclidimn 
Itailba, Meissn.) and the a7na7^ella or yellow. The 
former attains a larger size, and the wood is a deep 
dull purple — the heart-wood nearly black ; while that 
of the latter is paler and yellowish. Itaiiba wood is 
