XIV 
DOWN THE RIO NEGRO 
499 
but after having been nearly three years in the 
land of Piassaba, I did not like to leave it without 
seeing either flower or fruit of that remarkable 
palm, for which purpose I had previously made not 
a few unsuccessful journeys. I decided therefore 
to remain some time longer. The time of ripe 
fruit is about midsummer ; this had already passed, 
and on returning to the Guainia I learnt that no 
fruit had been seen there, but that the trees on the 
Casiquiari had borne a little fruit. The year 1853 
was a year of scarcity for fruit of the forest of all 
kinds. In 1852 the Pataua palm fruited so copiously 
that I drank the wine prepared from it nearly all 
the year round; while in 1853 ^ drink it 
once. In October 1854 I succeeded in getting 
flowers of the Piassaba at Solano on the Casiquiari. 
A few days after this I caught the virulent chilblains 
of this country by walking barefoot in the wet forest, 
and from this apparently simple cause I was con- 
fined to the house for five weeks, and great part of 
the time to my hammock. The skin of the sole of 
the right foot came off as completely as if a blister- 
ing-plaster had been applied to it, and this was 
followed by tumours which burst and sloughed. 
[In the district above referred to — the angle 
between the Rio Negro and Casiquiari — which he 
fully explored during his long stay at San Carlos, 
Spruce found a new and elegant little palm of which 
he made a very accurate and beautiful drawing 
(here reproduced half size). He describes it as 
being about 18 feet high, with the stem a little over 
3 inches diameter, and very closely ringed, the 
divisions of the leaves about 20 inches long and 
gracefully drooping. It was confined apparently to 
