i86 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
to the recesses of the sapopemas, the circumference 
would have been much increased. The roots em- 
bracing the trunk are those of a Fig, but there were 
a vast number of other twiners which the voracious 
mosquitoes did not allow me to sketch. I think 1 have 
Fig. 8. — Base of a Silk-cotton Tree. 
Sketched in the Parana-miri dos Ramos, October 1850. 
seen still larger trees of the same species, and I can- 
not doubt that it quite equals in dimensions its cele- 
brated African relative, the Baobab, for if it be rather 
less corpulent it is twice as lofty. The softness 
and lightness of the wood render it suitable above 
all other trees for hollowing out the trunk into what 
are called cuchas or floating casks, which, being filled 
with turtle oil or capivi on the Upper Amazon and 
securely caulked, are floated down to the Barra do 
