270 TlMEHRl. 
taken from young, unexpanded leaves of this palm. 
The fibre of the growing unexpanded leaves is largely 
used by the Brasilian Indians, though not much in this 
country, and is unusually strong and durable. 
There are various other species of Astrocaryum 
more or less closely resembling these two, A. tucuma 
and A. tucumoides. Of these one seems an exactly 
intermediate form between the two ; this is called by the 
Arawaks Arapeepi, and may be, possibly, A. aculeatum 
of MEYER or, more probably, an undescribed species. 
Another, which grows in immense numbers, and in 
dense thickets, in sandy places on the banks of most of 
the large rivers, in their upper waters, is called by the 
Caribs Sonari. This last is at once distinguishable by 
the strange, grayish-green appearance of the whole 
plant ; and the leaves are more ere6l, and proportionally 
smaller, than in any of the other species. The fruit is 
smooth, smaller even than that of A. tucumoides; and 
it is said to have ' a slimy rather than a fleshy covering,' 
so that it is never eaten. 
[A. vulgar e, Mart : 
Occurs, according to SCHOMBURGK, throughout the 
coast, and also the sandstone region, floweringin January.] 
Genus XVI. ACROCOMIA. 
[" Perigone exterior and interior 3-phyllous ; female flowers distant 
before the amentaceous male ones. Stamens 6. Ovary of Bactris, but 
surrounded by a 6-dentate cupule: Stigmas 3. Drupe 1 -seeded : Puta- 
men 3-porous about the middle. Trunk arboreous, densely prickly ; 
leaves rosulate at its summit : petiole and rachis prickly ; spadix 
simply branched ; male flowers in the contiguous alveoles of the ament 
female distant, sessile along its peduncle." Griesbach.] 
