VII 
AT MANAOS 
225 
which some have felt on being transported to the 
tropics, if I except the first three or four days at 
Para; but here are only trees — trees — trees! 
flowering, in their turn, all the year round, and 
never so many blooming at one time as to cause 
me any excess of work in preserving them, though 
the getting at some flowers is often a work of 
difficulty. 
I think I am finding most novelty among the 
sipos or twiners, such as certain Apocyneae, Meni- 
spermeae, etc. Some of these climb to such inacces- 
sible places that only the monkeys have it in their 
power to gather their flowers and fruit. When, 
however, I once see the leaves of a twiner I 
never lose sight of it until I find its flowers, and 
I generally succeed in the long run in obtaining 
specimens of them. . . . 
To Mr. John Smith ( Ctirator of Kew Gardens) 
Barra do Rio Negro, Sept. 24, 185 1. 
I trouble you with a letter to ask you to com- 
pare the specimens of Palms I have sent to your 
museum with the Plates, etc., in Martius's great 
work and give me your opinion on them. I can 
find no one who will talk to me about Palms, and I 
am now coming among some that are exceedingly 
interesting. It is true that they are extremely 
difficult to collect and preserve. A prickly palm 
gathered in the depths of the forest at a distance 
from one's canoe is a load for one man, and an 
exceedingly unpleasant one, for one's hands are 
almost constantly required to cut and pull aside the 
twiners that obstruct the way. The Miriti which 
VOL. I Q 
