i82 NOTES OF A BOTANIST chap, vi 
very great joy ; for I began to weary of the long 
delay, and of the monotonous vegetation of the 
Ramos at that season, to say nothing of the stifling 
heat, the rains, and the plague of stinging insects. 
Most of the trees had gone out of flower, and of 
those that were still blooming, two species of Inga 
formed a continuous fringe wherever the shores 
were low, and we saw afterwards the same species 
growing in the same way along the main Amazon. 
On the evening of the 17th we reached a new sitio, 
opened a few weeks previously by a Captain Pedro 
Macedo from Saraca, for the purpose of fabricating 
Seringa or india-rubber, the tree having been 
found to exist in considerable quantity on the 
Ramos. A large space had been cleared of trees, 
and there the necessary huts had been erected, and 
a few vegetables planted, such as pumpkins, water- 
melons, and cabbages. We found Captain Pedro 
intelligent and hospitable, and were glad to accept 
his invitation to join him at supper and breakfast 
on game caught in his seringal, including wild pig 
or peccary, curassow, and Macaco barrigudo or Big- 
bellied Monkey [Lagotkrix Httmboldtii). I had 
hitherto rarely tasted monkey, and I thought this 
one rather insipid ; but I learned afterwards to con- 
sider it the most savoury of its tribe, and to hold 
myself fortunate whenever I had one to put in the 
pot. After breakfast he led us into the forest, and 
showed us the Seringa trees, and the mode of col- 
lecting and fabricating the rubber. A track had 
been cut to each tree, and also to adjacent flats of 
Urucuri palm [Attalea excelsa), which, curiously 
enough, is almost invariably found growing near 
the Seringa, and whose fruit is considered essential 
