Palm trees of the Amazon and their uses

This species has a stem two or three feet high, or is altogether stemless like the last. The leaves are six or eight feet long, slender and pinnate. The leaflets are much broader than in A. acaule, similarly disposed in spreading groups, but not so much drooping. The midribs and petioles are armed with long, slender, cylindrical spines pointing in various directions.

The spadices grow from among the leaves and are erect and simply branched. The spathes are erect or somewhat curved over the fruit, and clothed with thickly set bristly spines. The fruit is globular, covered with scattered stiff hairs, and of an orange-red colour. It is not eatable.

This species is not uncommon in the same situations as the last. The specimen with a stem was growing in a moister part of the forest. It seems to be an undescribed species.

The stemless and short-stemmed state of this plant are shown on the Plate, and a fruit is represented of the natural size.

Flowers bracteate, male and female in the same spadix, and male in another spadix, on the same or on a different tree. Spathes double, the interior one complete and woody. Male flowers with from six to twenty-four stamens and a small rudimentary pistil. Female flowers with a short style and three stigmas, and a cup-shaped ring of rudimentary stamens.

The stems of these palms are generally lofty, cylindrical and smooth, but there are some stemless species. The leaves of all are very handsome, large and regularly pinnate; the petioles have the margins of the sheathing bases often more or less fibrous. The spadix grows from among the lower leaves, and is simply branched; and the fruit is ovate or oblong, and has a dry fibrous outer covering.

Sixteen species of these beautiful Palms are known, inhabiting various parts of South America, from the level of the sea to a height of 4000 feet above it. Their smooth and regularly pinnate leaves render them very suitable for thatching. One species, the A. funifera, produces a fibre very similar to that of the Leopoldinia piassaba, and the stony seeds from the same tree supply a kind of vegetable ivory.