X 
FORESTS OF THE UAUPES 
337 
Characteristics of the Vegetation of the Shores of the 
Rio Uaupes as far as Panure 
iyFrom the Journal) 
The shores are flat, yet as they consisted almost entirely of 
terra firme, I could often step off my canoe into the virgin forest. 
Sometimes the banks were 15 to 20 feet above present height of 
water. 
Very little rock was exposed. In one place there was a round 
convex granite island where the water ran rather swiftly. Here 
I got a Podostema. About half-way up were steep white banks, 
on the right bank of the river, consisting of numerous strata of 
alluvium (apparently clay and sand). The water was scarcely so 
black as that of the Rio Negro — perhaps owing to its now running 
off rapidly, and therefore in its most turbid state. 
Where any gap6 exists it is mostly indicated by the presence 
of Jauari palms ; these constitute the mass of the vegetation of 
some inundated islands in the upper part, with a fringe of low 
laurels and an Inga. Two other Ingas were frequent — one (/. 
mici'adenicE) near going out of flower when the other (/. rutila?is^ 
Spruce) was just opening. 
The plant most remarkable for its abundance and the delicious 
odour of its small cream-coloured flowers is the Strychnos rondele- 
tioides, sp. n., which in some places hung in masses of many feet 
in breadth from the tops of the trees to the water's edge, and, 
especially in the evening and the early morning, perfumed the 
whole gapo. 
Another great ornament to the banks is a small Apocyneous 
tree with odoriferous white flowers, which I was assured is the 
true Mulongo of which corks, etc., are made. It proves to be the 
same as a species I had gathered near Sao Gabriel iyHancornia 
laxa, A. D. C). 
Campsiandra laurifolia (Legum) was tolerably frequent, andll 
gathered a narrow-leaved form, or perhaps distinct species (C 
angustifolid). Nothing can be more abundant throughout the 
Rio Negro (as also the Tapajoz, as far as I have seen it) than this 
tree, which often occurs in continuous beds where the river, retir- 
ing in the dry season, leaves a wide sandy beach. The first trees 
met with in crossing one of these beaches when the river is at its 
lowest are these Campsiandras, two or three small Myrtaceous 
trees (such as are called Aragas), and many small Chrysobalaneae. 
. . . With the large flat seeds of the Campsiandra the Indian 
mariners amuse themselves with making "ducks and drakes," and 
on the Orinoco, where it is said to be equally abundant, the seeds 
grated and treated like the root of mandiocca yield a large pro- 
portion of nearly pure starch, of which cassave-bread is made. 
VOL. I Z 
