Palm Trees of the Amazon

Plate XLVIII. — Cocos Nucifera, Linnæus

Coqueiro, Portuguese.

The Cocoa-nut.

The stem of this well-known palm is very smooth, seldom quite erect, and often much thicker at the bottom. The leaves are large, terminal and regularly pinnate. The leaflets are rigid, and spread out very flat on each side of the midrib. From the sheathing bases of the petioles grows a compact fibrous material resembling in texture the spathe of the Bussú.

The spadices are produced from among the leaves, and are large and simply branched. The fruits are very large, and have a dense fibrous external covering over the well-known cocoa-nut.

This tree is not a native of South America, but as it is generally cultivated in every part of the tropics, I have given a figure of it. Its peculiar characteristic is the rigidity of its leaves, which curve or droop very slightly, and the leaflets spread out with remarkable flatness and regularity. The stem also is rather massive in accordance with the immense weight of fruit which it produces, and the whole tree, though exceedingly handsome, has not that light and feathery appearance which it is often represented as possessing. It is not impossible, however, that it may have acquired by its naturalization in America an aspect differing somewhat from its characteristic features when growing on the sea-shore, on the coral islands of India and the Pacific.

There it is of the greatest utility to man. It supplies food and drink and oil. Its fibres are woven into cordage and matting, and it even furnishes animal as well as vegetable food, herds of swine being fed and fattened entirely on its fruit.

On the banks of the Amazon, on the contrary, we see at once that it is in a foreign land. It flourishes indeed with great luxuriance, but no part of it is applied to any useful purpose, the fruit only being consumed as an occasional luxury. In the towns and larger villages where the Portuguese have settled it has been planted, but among the Indians of the interior it is still quite unknown.

List of the Palms described in this Work, with their Native Names and Uses.

Botanical Name.		Native Name.	Uses.
Leopoldinia
	pulchra	Jará	Stem used for fencing, rafters, &c.
	major	Jará assú	Fruit for making salt.
	piassaba	Piassába	Fibre for cordage, brooms, &c.; leaves for thatching; fruit eatable.
Euterpe
	oleracea	Assaí	Fruit for making a drink; stem for rafters, &c.
	catinga	Assaí de Catinga	Fruit for making a drink.
Œnocarpus
	baccaba	Baccába	Fruit makes a drink and oil; leaves for thatching.
	batawá	Patawá	Fruit makes a drink; spinous processes used for making arrows.
	disticha	Baccába	Leaves for thatching.
	minor	Baccába miri	Fruit makes a drink.
Iriartea
	exorhiza	Pashiúba	Stem split for floors and ceilings, &c.; air-roots for graters.
	ventricosa	Pashiúba barriguda	Stem split for lances, harpoons, floors, &c.; swollen part of stem for canoes.
	setigera	Pashiúba miri	Stem hollowed for making blowtubes or Gravatánas.
Raphia
	tædigera	Jupatí	Leaf-stalks split for making boxes, partitioning houses, doors, &c.
Mauritia
	flexuosa	Mirití	Fruit makes a drink; fibres of twisted into string for hammocks, &c.; leaf-stalks as the last.
	aculeata	Caranaí	Fruit makes a drink.
	gracilis	Caranaí	Fruit makes a drink.
	pumila	Caranaí	Not known.
	caraná	Caraná	Leaves good for thatch; leaf-stalks used as those of Raphia tædigera.
Lepidocaryum
	tenue	Caranaí do Mato	None.
Geonoma
	multiflora	Ubimrána	These species and others allied all have the leaves more or less used for thatching.
	paniculigera	Ubim de Cotiwiya
	rectifolia	Ubimrána
Manicaria
	saccifera	Bussú	Leaves the best for thatching;
			spathe for caps, wrappers &c.
Desmoncus
	macroacanthus	Jacitára	Bark makes “tipitis” or elastic
			cylinders for squeezing the
			grated mandiocca.
Bactris
	pectinata	Iú	These little prickly palms seem not to be applied to any particular uses.
	n.s.	Marayarána
	elatior	Marayarána
	n.s.	Unknown
	macrocarpa	Iú
	tenuis	Iú
	simplicifrons	Iú
	maraja	Marajá	Fruit eatable.
	integrifolia	Iú	None.
Guilielma
	speciosa	Pupúnha	Fruit very good and nutritious; wood very hard, black and durable.
Acrocomia
	lasiospatha	Mucujá	Fruit eatable.
Astrocaryum
	murumurú	Murumurú	Cattle eat fruit.
	gynacanthum	Mumbáca	None.
	vulgare	Tucúm	Leaf-fibres for cordage.
	tucumá	Tucumá	Fruit eatable.
	jauarí	Jauarí	Nuts for lace-bobbin heads.
	aculeatum	Marayá	None. Others with the same name have eatable fruit.
	acaule	Iú	Bark of leaf-stalks for baskets.
	humile	Iú	Fruit eatable.
Attalea
	speciosa	Uauassú	Leaves for thatch.
	excelsa	Urucurí	Fruit burnt for smoking rubber.
	spectabilis	Curúa	Leaves for thatch.
Maximiliana
	regia	Inajá	Fruit eatable.
Cocos
	nucifera	Coqueiro	The Cocoa-nut; fruit eatable.

The genera of Palms found in America are thirty-six in number. Thirty-two of these are entirely confined to it, while only four are common to the Old and New Worlds, as shown in the following list:—

List of the American Genera of Palms.
Name of Genus.	No. of species mentioned in this Work.	Species found in America.	Species of American Genera in the Old World.
Chamedorea	0	23	0
Hyospathe	0	1	0
Morenia	0	2	0
Kunthia	0	1	0
Leopoldinia	3	4	0
Euterpe	3	12	0
Œnocarpus	4	6	0
Oreodoxia	0	6	0
Reinhardtia	0	1	0
Iriartea	4	9	0
Ceroxylon	0	3	0
Raphia	1	1	2
Mauritia	7	8	0
Lepidocaryum	1	2	0
Geonoma	3	33	0
Manicaria	1	1	0
Copernicia	0	6	0
Brahea	0	2	0
Sabal	0	9	0
Trithrinax	0	2	0
Chamærops	0	2	6
Thrinax	0	8	0
Desmoncus	1	14	0
Bactris	9	46	0
Guilielma	1	3	0
Martinezia	0	4	0
Acrocomia	1	8	0
Astrocaryum	8	17	0
Elœis	0	1	1
Attalea	3	16	0
Maximiliana	1	3	0
Orbignia	0	3	0
Syagrus	0	5	0
Diplothemium	0	5	0
Jubæa	0	1	0
Cocos	1	17	1
Totals	52	285	10

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