Volume 4

Notes of a botanist on the Amazon & Andes : being records of travel on the Amazon and its tributaries, the Trombetas, Rio Negro, Uaupés, Casiquiari, Pacimoni, Huallaga and Pastasa; as also to the cataracts of the Orinoco, along the eastern side of the Andes of Peru and Ecuador, and the shores of the Pacific, during the years 1849-1864 / by Richard Spruce ; edited and condensed by Alfred Russel Wallace ; with a biographical introduction, portrait, seventy-one illustrations and seven maps.

  • Spruce, Richard, 1817-1893.
Date:
1908
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Notes of a botanist on the Amazon & Andes : being records of travel on the Amazon and its tributaries, the Trombetas, Rio Negro, Uaupés, Casiquiari, Pacimoni, Huallaga and Pastasa; as also to the cataracts of the Orinoco, along the eastern side of the Andes of Peru and Ecuador, and the shores of the Pacific, during the years 1849-1864 / by Richard Spruce ; edited and condensed by Alfred Russel Wallace ; with a biographical introduction, portrait, seventy-one illustrations and seven maps. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    thickish Imba-uba (Cecropia) has the bark mottled with red and white as in the Bread-fruit tree. In some places is an Anonaceous tree, about 30 feet high, with a profusion of flowers in small axillary clusters on the upper side of the long branchlets. The solitary tall Assai palm is very scarce, occurring only towards the mouth of the Coary. A remarkable tree occurs below Coary, 50 feet high, the top spreading, the lanceolate pale green leaves clustered on the ends of slender twigs, the flower-stalks long, descending then ascend¬ ing, growing on the main branches and trunk nearly to the base, fruits pendent, globular, size of an orange, but said when ripe to be much larger, having a hard shell with four seeds. It is probably a species of Couroupita (Lecythidese). Much wild Cacao is seen on the margins and as far within as the inundation extends—conspicuous from its young red leaves. There is generally much Castanha (Brazil-nut) in the forests. At Tabatinga I gathered flowers of a small Composite tree growing 6 to 15 feet high and looking very like a willow. It is the Tessaria legitim a ^ DC., and had been noticed from the mouth of the Japura upwards. A Serjania (Sapindaceae) with large masses of red capsules is now very frequent, and a low Copaifera in flower grows here and there by the water’s edge. The Pao Mulatto continues very abundant and our firewood consists wholly of this species. There is no handsomer tree in the gapo. It sometimes reaches near 100 feet high. It is branched from about the middle, and the top forms a narrow inverted cone. The surface of the trunk and branches is somewhat wavy or corrugated, but the bark is quite smooth and shining. When I went to Manaquiry in June 1851 the trees were shedding their bark, the process being a longitudinal split¬ ting up in one or more places, and a rolling back from both edges of the rupture. The young bark thus exposed is green, but it speedily assumes a deep bronze or leaden hue, and finally a chestnut colour—hence its name.1 Some small Rubiaceous trees have the same property; for instance, Eurosmia corymbosci and a tree in the forest at Yurimaguas, with leaves resembling those of a Nona- telia, but the bark is greener than that of the Pao Mulatto. With this latter tree, on the Solimoes, frequently grows the Castanheiro do Macaco, with globular brown fruits, probably a species of Couroupita. Journal (continued) March 27.—At 4 p.m. we reached Tabatinga, the Irontier town of Brazil, situated on the north [This tree was, later, collected by Spruce, and being new was named by Mi. Bentham Enkylista Spruceana. It belongs to the Cinchonacete.]