Page:A narrative of travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro.djvu/197

 1S51.] THE PIASSABA PALM. 167

(a branch of the Rio Negro about five hundred miles above Barra), it is found on several rivers, but never on the banks of the main stream itself. A great part of the population of the Upper Rio Negro is employed in obtaining the fibre for exportation ; and I thus became acquainted with all the localities in which it is found. These are the rivers Padauari, Jaha, and Daraha on the north bank of the Rio Negro, and the Marie and Xie on the south. The other two rivers, the Maraviha" and Cababuris, on the north, have not a tree; neither have the Curicurian, Uaupes, and Isanna, on the south, though they flow between the Marie and the Xie, where it abounds. In the whole of the district about the Upper Rio Negro above Sao Carlos, and about the Atabapo and its branches, it is abundant, and just behind the village of Tdmo was where I first saw it. It grows in moist places, and is about twenty or thirty feet high, with the leaves large, pinnate, shining, and very smooth and regular. The whole stem is covered with a thick coating of the fibres, hanging down like coarse hair, and growing from the bases of the leaves, which remain attached to the stem. Large parties of men, women, and children go into the forests to cut this fibre. It is exten- sively used in its native country for cables and small ropes for all the canoes and larger vessels on the Amazon. Humboldt alludes to this plant by the native Venezuelan name of Chiquichiqui, but does not appear to have seen it, though he passed along this road. I believe it to be a species of Leo- poldinia, of which two other kinds occur in the Rio Negro and, like this tree, are found there only. I could not find it in flower or fruit, but took a sketch of its general appearance, and have called it Leopoldinia Piassaba, from its native name, in the greater part of the district which it inhabits.

On approaching the end of the road I came to a " rhossa," or cleared field, where I found a tall, stout Indian planting cassava. He addressed me with "Buenos dias," and asked me where I was going, and if I wanted anything at the village, for that the Commissario was away, and he was the Capitao. I replied in the best Spanish I could muster up for the occasion, and we managed to understand each other pretty well. He was rather astonished when I told him I was going to stay at the village, and seemed very doubtful of my inten- tions. I informed him, however, that I was a " Naturalista,"