226 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
grows here in the centre of the continent is possibly 
distinct from the maritime species, but as a spadix 
is a load for two men, specimens are quite beyond 
the reach of a traveller like myself. However, not- 
withstanding all the difficulties that lie in my way, 
I feel that it would be quite a sin to leave so many 
fine things altogether unnoticed. Higher up the 
Rio Negro I am certain to find abundance of new 
palms. Mr. Wallace has just come down from the 
frontier and brought with him sketches of several 
palms, of which I have no doubt many are quite 
new. There are at least two large Mauritias quite 
distinct from any described by Martius. . . . 
I am now describing completely every palm I 
find, and I hope to sketch the greater part of them, 
so that, with the aid of the specimens I send to 
England, I hope some day to be able to work them 
up. I am now familiar with the aspect of all the 
commoner palms, but I have learnt that it is very 
unsafe to trust to the native names for the species, 
these names being, in fact, in most cases generic ; 
I may instance Assai, Bacaba, Maraja. The palm 
called Bacaba at Para and Santarem is not the 
Oenocarpus Bacaba but the Oe. disticha. The 
number of Marajas is endless. 
I find ferns very scarce here in the interior. I 
have got a few interesting species near the Barra, 
but they are so scarce that of some of them I have 
taken every individual I met with. Surely I shall 
find them more abundant up the Rio Negro. 
