Part 15

This species inhabits the tidal swamps of the Lower Amazon. A palm called “bussú” is also found on the Rio Negro and Upper Amazon, but it is of a smaller size and is probably a distinct species.

A spathe is represented on the Plate and a dead stem from which the leaves have entirely fallen.

Plate II. fig. 3, a fruit of Manicaria saccifera of the natural size.

Genus DESMONCUS, Martius.

Male flowers on the upper parts of the branches of the spadix, females on the lower. Spathe fusiform, woody, at length deciduous. Male flowers with six stamens and linear acute anthers. Female flowers with a short style and three stigmas and six small scaly rudiments of stamens.

Stems slender, flexible, climbing over shrubs or trees. Leaves alternate, pinnate, much sheathing, with long hooked spines in the place of the three or four terminal pair of leaflets. The spadices are axillary and simply branched, the spathes double, fusiform or ventricose, and the fruits are small, round, and generally red. The stems and leaves are more or less prickly.

Fourteen species of these curious Palms are found in various parts of South America, principally in the low lands, as they are not known at a greater height than 2000 feet above the level of the sea. They differ remarkably from all other American palms in their long climbing stems, in which they resemble the Calami or Canes so abundant in the East Indies.

Pl. XXVII.

W. Fitch lith. Ford & West Imp.

DESMONCUS MACROACANTHUS. Ht. 50 Ft. ]

PLATE XXVII. DESMONCUS MACROACANTHUS, Martius.

Jacitára, Lingoa Geral.

The stem of this palm is very slender, weak and flexible, often sixty or seventy feet long, and climbing over bushes and trees or trailing along the ground. It is armed with scattered tubercular prickles. The leaves grow alternately along the stem; they are pinnate, with from three to five pairs of leaflets, beyond which the midrib is produced and armed with several pairs of strong spines directed backwards, and with numerous smaller prickles. The leaflets are ovate, with the edges waved or curled. The bases of the petioles are expanded into long membranous sheaths.

The spadices grow on long stalks from the axils of the leaves and are simply branched. The spathes are ventricose, erect, persistent and prickly, and the fruit is globular, of a red colour, and not eatable.

The rind or bark of this species is much used for making the “tipitis” or elastic plaited cylinders used for squeezing the juice out of the grated Mandiocca-root in the manufacture of farinha. These cylinders are sometimes made of the rind of certain water plants and of the petioles of several palms, but those constructed of “Jacitára” are said to outlast two or three of the others, and though they are much more difficult to make, are most generally used among the Indian tribes. When the cylinders are used they are suspended from a strong pole, having been first filled with the grated pulp. A long lever is passed through the loop at the lower end of the “tipiti,” by means of which it is stretched, the power being applied by a woman sitting on the further extremity of the pole. The cylinder thus becomes powerfully contracted, and the poisonous juice runs out at every part of the surface and is caught in a pan below in order to be carefully thrown away, for it would cause speedy death to any domestic animal which should drink it.

This species grows in the Catinga forests of the Upper Rio Negro and on the margins of small streams, climbing over trees and hanging in festoons between them, throwing out its armed leaves on every side to catch the unwary traveller. How often will they seize the insect-net of the ardent Entomologist just as he is making a dash at some rare butterfly, or fasten in his jacket or shirt-sleeve, or pull the cap from his head! Woe then to the impatient wanderer! a pull or a tug will inevitably cause a portion of the fractured garment to stay behind, for the “jacitára” never looses its hold, and it is only by deliberately extracting its fangs that the intruder can expect to depart unhurt.

In some places small igaripés or forest streams are almost filled up with various climbing grasses and creepers, among which the “jacitára” holds a prominent place, and it is up these streams that the Indians often delight to fix their abode. In such cases they never cut down a branch, but pass and repass daily in their little canoes which wind like snakes among the tangled mass of thorny vegetation. They are thus almost safe against the incursions of the white traders, who often attack them in their most distant retreats, carry fire and sword into their peaceful houses and take captive their wives and children. But few white men can penetrate for miles along a little winding stream such as is here described, where not a broken twig or cut branch is found to show that a human being has ever passed before. Thus does the thorny “jacitára” help to secure the independence of the wild Indian in the depths of the forests which he loves.

This species most nearly agrees with the D. macroacanthus of Martius. Fine specimens of an allied species may be seen growing in the Palm House at Kew.

A fruit is represented on the Plate of the natural size.

Genus BACTRIS, Jacquin.

Male and female flowers intermingled in the same spadix, the females being more abundant in the lower parts and the males in the upper. Spathe double, exterior short and membranous, interior complete, woody. Male flowers with six, nine or twelve stamens. Female flowers with three sessile stigmas, and the stamens represented by a rudimentary ring.

The stems in this genus are very slender, ringed, nearly smooth or with a few scattered spines. The leaves are more or less terminal, generally few in number, pinnate or entire, with the bases of the petioles much sheathing and very spiny. The spathe is also clothed with spines. The spadices are simple or simply branched and grow from the axils of the leaves. The fruit is small and round, and the outer pulp is often subacid and eatable.

This very extensive genus of small prickly Palms contains forty-six species, all natives of South America. Two species described by Martius are here figured, together with six others apparently new, but as it may be impossible to identify those not seen in fruit, some of them have been left unnamed.

The species here figured are all from the Rio Negro, where I began studying them, and are sufficient to give an idea of their general characteristics and aspect.

Pl. XXVIII.

W. Fitch lith. Ford & West Imp.

BACTRIS PECTINATA. Ht. 8 Ft. ]

PLATE XXVIII. BACTRIS PECTINATA, Martius.