Palm trees of the Amazon and their uses

The stem of this little palm resembles in size and appearance that of B. tenuis. The leaves are five or six in number, terminal, and consist of a single broad bifid leaflet, or more properly a pair of opposite terminal leaflets. The petioles and their sheathing bases are thickly set with spines.

The spadices grow from below the leaves; they are unbranched and bend downwards, and the spathes are elongate, small, erect or horizontal, smooth and persistent.

This pretty little species seems identical with one described by Martius under the name of Bactris simplicifrons. It is not uncommon in the dry Catinga forests of the Upper Rio Negro.

This is a palm rather larger than most others of the genus, and inhabiting the flooded banks of the Amazon.

It produces large clusters of fruit resembling small black grapes, and having a thin pulp of an agreeable subacid flavour,—a peculiarity not found in the fruit of any other American palm that I am acquainted with. The places where it grows are often so deeply flooded that the fruit hangs close to the surface of the water, and can be plucked while passing in a canoe.

Dried specimens of the tree and fruit are in the Museum, and young plants are growing in the Palm House at Kew.