Palm trees of the Amazon and their uses

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.

The rind of the leaf-stalks of this palm is used by the Indians for making baskets. It grows in the dry Catinga forests of the Upper Rio Negro, often covering large tracts of ground. It has altogether a rather repulsive and inelegant appearance.

A fruit is shown on the Plate of the natural size, and a spadix reduced showing the spathe bent over it.