Part 21

This palm is from thirty to forty feet in height, and has the stem armed with narrow rings of black spines. The leaves are terminal, rather large and regularly pinnate. The leaflets are elongate, linear and much drooping, and the midribs and petioles are very prickly. The sheathing bases of the leaf-stalks are very much swollen where they spring from the stem. The spadix grows erect from among the leaves and is simply branched. The fruit is nearly globular, of a greenish yellow colour, with a layer of yellow fleshy pulp covering the stony seed, much resembling the fruit of the Mucujá and equally esteemed for food by the Indians.

This species is very nearly allied to the last, but may readily be distinguished by its globular fruit, more drooping leaflets, less prickly habit, and the peculiar aspect of its swollen petioles. It is abundant near Pará, and is also found in the dry virgin forests of the Upper Amazon and Rio Negro.

There are young living plants in the Palm House of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew.

Plate II. fig. 5. represents a fruit of the natural size.

Pl. XLII.

W. Fitch lith. Ford & West Imp.

ASTROCARYUM JAUARI Ht. 40 Ft. ]

PLATE XLII. ASTROCARYUM JAUARI, Martius.

Jauarí, Lingoa Geral.

The Jauarí has the stem rather slenderer than the Tucumá, but of about equal height, and armed with regular narrow rings of spines. The leaves are terminal and of moderate size. The leaflets are long, narrow and very much drooping, and the midribs and sheaths are thickly covered with long, flat, black spines.

The spadices are erect, simply branched, and hidden amongst the leaves. The fruit is small, oval, green, and not eatable.

The rather small dense head of foliage, combined with the prickly habit of this palm, render it altogether one of the least pleasing of the family; and the feeling is increased by its abundance in many localities, extending for miles along the river banks to the exclusion of any other species. It is moreover one of the least useful among the larger palms, the only part which is applied to any purpose being the hard, black, oval seeds, of which the Brazilian ladies of the Upper Amazon make heads for their lace-making bobbins.

This species is unknown in the neighbourhood of Pará and on the Lower Amazon. It first occurs near Villa Nova, about five hundred miles up the river, where the tidal rise and fall of the water ceases and the annual floods rise to a considerable height. From this point upwards it is very abundant, growing everywhere on the margins of the rivers, in places which are for six or eight months in the year under water. It is never found beyond the limits of the floods, and in travelling up the Rio Negro it is for hundreds of miles the only species of Astrocaryum met with.

Pl. XLIII.

W. Fitch lith. Ford & West Imp.

ASTROCARYUM ACULEATUM Ht. 20 Ft. ]

PLATE XLIII. ASTROCARYUM ACULEATUM? Meyer.

Marayá, Lingoa Geral.

This small species has the stem from fifteen to twenty feet high and about two inches in diameter, with obscure rings of spines at irregular intervals. The leaves are terminal, rather large and regularly pinnate. The leaflets are narrow, rigid and scarcely drooping, with the terminal pair broader. The midrib and leaflets are smooth, but the bases and sheaths of the petioles are very prickly.

The spadices grow from below the leaves and are very small and simply branched. The spathes are small, ovate, swollen, erect, persistent and very prickly. The trees were not found in fruit.

This tree agrees pretty well with Dr. Martius’ description of A. aculeatum. It grows in the virgin forest of the Upper Rio Negro.

Pl. XLIV.

W. Fitch lith. Ford & West Imp.

ASTROCARYUM ACAULE Ht. 9 Ft. ]

PLATE XLIV. ASTROCARYUM ACAULE, Martius.

Iú, Lingoa Geral.

This palm never has any stem, the leaves springing at once from the ground. They are eight or ten feet long, slender and pinnate. The leaflets are very narrow and drooping, and are disposed in groups of three or four, at intervals along the midrib, the separate leaflets standing out in different directions. The whole plant is exceedingly spiny, the midrib and petioles having long, flat, black spines directed downwards, and the leaflets are also spiny beneath.

The spadix grows from among the leaves on a long stalk and is simply branched. The spathe is elongate and fusiform, at first erect, but gradually bends over at the end, forming a hood over the fruit, and is densely clothed with spines. The fruit is oval with a produced apex, of a pale yellow colour, and has a thin layer of firm pulp which is sometimes eaten, but is not very agreeable.