Palm Trees of the Amazon and Their Uses

Part 1

Ford & West lith. London. ]

PALM TREES OF THE AMAZON AND THEIR USES.

ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE.

WITH FORTY-EIGHT PLATES.

LONDON: JOHN VAN VOORST, 1 PATERNOSTER ROW. 1853.

PRINTED BY TAYLOR AND FRANCIS, RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET.

PREFACE.

The materials for this work were collected during my travels on the Amazon and its tributaries from 1848 to 1852. Though principally occupied with the varied and interesting animal productions of the country, I yet found time to examine and admire the wonders of vegetable life which everywhere abounded. In the vast forests of the Amazon valley, tropical vegetation is to be seen in all its luxuriance. Huge trees with buttressed stems, tangled climbers of fantastic forms, and strange parasitical plants everywhere meet the admiring gaze of the naturalist fresh from the meadows and heaths of Europe. Everywhere too rise the graceful Palms, true denizens of the tropics, of which they are the most striking and characteristic feature. In the districts which I visited they were everywhere abundant, and I soon became interested in them, from their great variety and beauty of form and the many uses to which they are applied. I first endeavoured to familiarize myself with the aspect of each species and to learn to know it by its native name; but even this was not a very easy matter, for I was often unable to see any difference between trees which the Indians assured me were quite distinct, and had widely different properties and uses. More close examination, however, convinced me that external characters did exist by which every species could be separated from those most nearly allied to it, and I was soon pleased to find that I could distinguish one palm from another, though barely visible above the surrounding forest, almost as certainly as the natives themselves. I then endeavoured to define the peculiarities of form or structure which gave to each its individual character, and made accurate sketches and descriptions to impress them upon my memory. These peculiarities are often very slight, though permanent:—in the roots, the extent to which they appear above the ground;—in the stem, the thickness, which in each species varies within very definite limits,—the swelling of the base, the middle or the summit,—its generally erect or curving position,—the nature of the rings with which it is marked,—the number, direction and form of the spines or tubercles with which it is armed;—in the leaves, the erect or drooping position, the size and form of the leaflets, the angles which they form with the midrib, and the proportionate size of the terminal pair, are all important characters. The fruit spike or spadix is either erect or drooping, either simple, forked, or many-branched; and the fruits in closely allied species vary in size, in shape, and in colour, as well as in the bloom, down, hairs or tubercles with which they are clothed.

In this little work careful engravings from my original drawings are given, with a general description of each species, and a history from personal observation of the various uses to which it is applied, and of any other interesting particulars connected with it. Several of the species here figured are new, and among them is the Palm which produces the “piassába,” the coarse fibrous material of which brooms for street sweeping are now generally made.

For the determination of the genera and species, and for that part of the Introduction relating to the botanical characters and geographical distribution of Palms, I am indebted to the magnificent work of Dr. Martius. To the botanist I trust my little book may be of some use, in giving accurate figures of many entire plants, of which he is only acquainted with small portions, and in supplying an account of the uses to which they are applied in the distant regions where they grow. And to the general reader I hope it may not be uninteresting, as exhibiting a glimpse of a wild and rude people in the lowest state of civilization, whose existence is intimately connected with the products of the surrounding forests, among which the plants under consideration hold so prominent a place; and of these it is hoped the accompanying Plates will give a more accurate idea than the stereotyped figures which often represent the “feathery palm trees” in our popular works.

Some of the fruits of which I had no drawings, have been figured from specimens in the Museum at Kew collected by Mr. R. Spruce, who is still investigating the Botany of the Amazon valley.

London, October 1853.

LIST OF PLATES.

Plate Map showing the distribution of Palms in America (Frontispiece) 1

Fruits of Palms, containing,

1. Raphia tædigera.

2. Mauritia flexuosa.

3. Manicaria saccifera.

4. Lepidocaryum tenue (all of the natural size) 2

5. Astrocaryum tucuma.

6. Leopoldinia pulchra.

Fruits of Palms, containing,

1. Attalea spectabilis.

2. Maximiliana regia.

3. Spathe of Maximiliana regia (reduced) 3

4. Guilielma speciosa (all of the natural size).

Leopoldinia pulchra 4

—— major 5

Part 2

—— piassába 6

Euterpe oleracea 7

—— catinga 8

Œnocarpus baccába 9

—— batawa (with fruit) 10

—— batawa (with arrow and quiver) 10, 11

Iriartea exorhiza 12

Roots of an Iriartea 13

Iriartea ventricosa (with a fruit) 14

—— setigera (with fruit and Gravatana) 15

Raphia tædigera 16

Mauritia flexuosa (with a leaf) 17

—— carana 18

—— aculeata 19

—— gracilis 20

—— pumila 21

Lepidocaryum tenue 22

Geonoma multiflora (with fruit) 23

—— paniculigera 24

—— rectifolia (with fruit) 25

Manicaria saccifera (with a spathe) 26

Desmoncus macroacanthus (with a fruit) 27

Bactris pectinata (with a fruit) 28

—— —— n.s. 29

—— elatior 30

—— —— n.s. (with a leaflet) 31

—— macrocarpa (with a fruit and leaflet) 32

—— tenuis (with spadix) 33

Part 3

—— simplicifrons 34

—— integrifolia 35

Guilielma speciosa (with Uaupes Indian’s house) 36

Acrocomia lasiospatha (with fruit) 37

Astrocaryum murumurú (with fruit and part of leaf) 38

—— gynacanthum 39

—— vulgare 40

—— tucuma (with young plant) 41

—— jauari 42

—— aculeatum 43

—— acaule (with spadix and fruit) 44

—— humile (with fruit) 45

Attalea speciosa 46

Maximiliana regia 47

Cocos nucifera 48

Pl. II. PALM FRUITS

W. Fitch lith. Ford & West Imp.

1. Raphia tædigera. 2. Mauritia flexuosa. 3. Manicaria saccifera. 4. Lepidocaryum tenue. 5. Astrocaryum tucuma. 6. Leopoldinia pulchra. ]

Pl. III. PALM FRUITS.

W. Fitch lith. Ford & West. Imp.

1. Attalea spectabilis. 2. Maximiliana regia. 3. Spathe of Maregia. 4. Guilielma speciosa. 5. Iriartea exorhiza. ]

PALM TREES OF THE AMAZON

AND THEIR USES.

INTRODUCTION.

Palms are endogenous or ingrowing plants, belonging to the same great division of the Vegetable Kingdom as the Grasses, Bamboos, Lilies and Pineapples, and not to that which contains all our English forest trees. They are perennial, not annual like most of the above-named plants, and probably reach a great age. Their stems are simple or very rarely forked, slender, erect, and cylindrical, not tapering as in most other trees; they are hardest on the outside, and are marked more or less distinctly with scars or rings, marking the situation of the fallen leaves.

The leaves are generally terminal, forming a bunch or head at the summit of the tree; they are of very large size, have long petioles or footstalks, and are alternately placed on the stem. In shape they are pinnate or flabellate, or rarely simple, sheathing at the base, without stipules; and they have a plicate vernation, or are folded up lengthways before they open. The margins of the sheathing bases of the leaf-stalks are often fibrous, and give out a variety of singular processes.

The flowers are numerous, small, symmetrical, uncoloured, or obscurely so, six-parted, and hermaphrodite or polygamous. They are produced in a spadix from the axils of the leaves, and are generally enclosed in a spathe or sheath. The ovary or seed-vessel is three-celled or three-lobed, but the fruit is generally one-seeded from abortion, and the seed is large and albuminous with a fibrous or fleshy covering.

Palms are almost exclusively tropical plants, very few species being found in the temperate zone, and those only in the warmer parts of it, while the nearer we approach the equator the more numerous they become both in species and individuals. Dr. Martius, a Prussian botanist and traveller in South America, has published a magnificent work in three folio volumes, entirely devoted to the Botanical history of this family of plants. He divides the portion of the earth which produces palms into five regions, namely,—

Part 4

The North Palm Zone, extending from the northern limit of Palms to the tropic of Cancer.

The transition North Palm Zone, from the tropic of Cancer to 10° north latitude.

The Chief Palm Zone, from 10° north to 10° south latitude.

The transition South Palm Zone, from 10° south latitude to the tropic of Capricorn, and

The South Palm Zone, from the tropic of Capricorn to the southern limit of the family.

The Northern limit of Palms is, in Europe 43° of latitude, in Asia 34°, and in America 34°.

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