VII 
AT MANAOS 
205 
mens. Every road and path, every clearing, farm, 
or swamp, every stream or hill within reach were 
visited at intervals as the various trees, shrubs, or 
other plants came into flower. Within five or six 
miles east and west of the city six streams (igarapes) 
enter the main river, and all of these were assidu- 
ously examined either by boat or by paths overland, 
while several of the smaller and more accessible 
were followed up to their sources. Occasionally 
the river was crossed to examine the gapo (flooded 
land), and several excursions of longer duration 
were made to places ten or fifteen miles up the 
river, or into the main Amazon and some distance 
up the Solimoes. 
The results of this assiduous work were very 
gratifying from a botanical point of view. In the 
first year and a half of his residence in South 
America, he had explored the Lower Amazon at 
many localities and on both the north and south 
sides of the great river, and had collected more 
than 1 100 species of plants. The eleven months 
spent at the mouth of the Rio Negro added to 
these no less than 750 additional species, besides 
a considerable number of those which had been 
already obtained but were of rare occurrence. Well 
might he say that this was the richest botanical 
district he had yet visited, while it produced a 
proportionately much larger number of new and 
undescribed species. 
The outline map of the district around the 
mouth of the Rio Negro, given at p. 229, on which 
the various stations visited by Spruce are indicated, 
will enable the reader to follow more easily the 
extracts from letters and journals now to be given. 
