THE PIItlJAO PALM-TBEE.. 349 
myself to pointing out what is imperfect, or fatal to huma- 
nity, in tlieir civil or religious institutions. If I have dwelt 
longer on the J Roc7c oj" the Guuhihci , it was to record an 
affecting instance of maternal tenderness in a race of people 
so long calumniated ; and because I thought some_ benefit 
might accrue from publishing a fact, which I had trom the 
monks of San Francisco, and which proves how much the 
system of the missions calls for the care of the legislator. 
Above the mouth of the Guasucavi we entered the Rio 
Temi, the course of which is from south to north. Had 
we continued to ascend the Atabapo, we should have turned 
to east-south-east, going farther from the banks of the 
Guainia or Rio Negro. The Temi is only eighty or ninety 
toises broad, but in any other country than Guiana it would 
be a considerable river. The country exhibits the uniform 
aspect of forests covering ground perfectly fiat. The fine 
pirijao palm, with its fruit like peaches, and. a new species 
of bache, or mauritia, its trank bristled with thorns, rise 
amid smaller trees, the vegetation of which appears to be 
retarded by the continuance of the inundations. The 
Mauritia aeuleata is called by the Indians juria or cauvaja ; 
its leaves are in the form of a fan, and they bend towards 
tlie ground. At tlie centre of every leaf, no doubt fro in 
the effect of some disease of the parenchyma, concentric 
circles of alternate blue and yellow appear, the yellow pre- 
vailing towards the middle. Wo were singularly struck by 
this appearance j the leaves, coloured like the peacock s 
tail, are supported by short and very thick trunks. The 
thorns are not slender and long like those of the corozo 
and other thorny palm-trees; but on the contrary, very 
■woody, short, and broad at the base, like the thorns of the 
Hura crepitans. On the banks of the Atabapo and the 
Temi, this palm-tree is distributed in groups of twelve or 
fifteen stems, close together, and looking as if they rose 
from the same root. These trees resemble in their appear- 
mice, form, and scarcity of leaves, tlie fan-palms and pal- 
mettos of the Old World. We remarked that some plants 
°f the juria were entirely destitute of fruit, and others 
exhibited a considerable quantity ; this circumstance seems 
to indicate a palm-tree of separate sexes. _ . 
Wherever the Rio Temi forms coves, the forest is uiun- 
