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244 NOTES OF A BOTANIST CHAP.
. . . The
nuts are much the same as in the other
species, only rather ; larger they are extensively
used in the Sierra for making heads of dolls, saints,
and walking-sticks. The Cadi produces a very
excellent "cabbage," but the Indian and other
inhabitants are fonder of a large maggot called
which is bred in its trunk. I have seen
Majon
the Indians of the Rio Negro and of Canelos roast
and eat the larva of a beetle extracted from the
trunk of the Pupunha palm (Guilielma speciosa).
In general, the arborescent vegetation seemed
scanty in species and uninteresting. One of the
most striking trees was an Erythrina with a slender
tortuous (almost twining) trunk, from which sprang
long spikes of scarlet flowers, and few branches
bearing each a coma of ternate leaves, whereof the
leaflets were sometimes 18 inches across. There
were also a few Figs, and on the steep declivities
there were patches of low forest, consisting chiefly
of Clusiae, Thibaudiae, and Melastomaceae. Two
small Trichomanes crept along the branches of
shrubs, but terrestrial ferns were all but absent.
On returning that evening to our hut,
I consulted
with Bermeo about our ulterior movements. He
told
into
me that if
the forest,
I would go another day's journey
he could with certainty show me
more trees of the Cascarilla ro/'a, which he had seen
not many months previously,
and as on account of
the Revolution no one had this vear entered the
*-
forests to collect Cascarilla, it was probable they
were still untouched. But for this our stock of
provisions would scarcely suffice, and I saw no
probability of adding anything interesting
to the