Untitled - The Alfred Russel Wallace Website

IN THE CINCHONA FORESTS 277
recesses of the forest, they were sought out and cropped by the
starving animals. After the bamboo above spoken of, the Arrowcane
(Gynerium saccharoides] is the most notable grass, and
forms considerable beds, especially near streams. This species
is abundant enough on low shores and islands of the Amazon,
but it has nowhere spread far from the river-bank, nor (so far as
I can ascertain) is it found wild on any of the tributaries of that
on the
Even river, but those which rise in the Andes. . . .
Amazon it looks dwindled, and rarely exceeds 1 8 or 20 feet high ;
but on reaching the roots of the Andes of Maynas, one begins to
see this noble grass in its true proportions. ... It attains its
maximum of development on stony springy declivities, at an
elevation of about 1500 feet above the sea, where a forest of
Arrow-cane, with its tall slender stems of 30 to 40 feet, each
supporting a fan-shaped coma of distichous leaves, and a longstalked
thyrse of rose and silver flowers waving in the wind, is
truly a grand sight. The longest stem I ever measured was one
I met a man carrying on his shoulder at Tarapoto. From that
stem had been cut away the leaves and peduncle, and the base
of the stem, which is generally beset by stout-arched exserted
roots (serving as buttresses), to a height of i to 3 feet ; yet the
residue was 37 feet long, so that the entire length must have been
at least 45 feet.
The other grasses accompanying the Red Bark comprise
several of those rampant forest Panica which thread among
adjacent branches to a height of 15 feet or more. The long
internodes serve as tubes for tobacco pipes and for other similar
uses. There are also two broad-leaved Gamalotes of the same
genus. Of grasses frequent in the hot plains I noted only
Dactyloctfnium . Egyptiacum and Paspalum conju^atum.
Cyperacec?, \. This order is scarce, both in individuals and
species. The half-dozen species observed belong chiefly to
Scleria and Isolepis.
Aracci.?, 4. As abundant and varied as in the forests of
the plains. An arborescent species, called Casimin by the
inhabitants, grows everywhere, even on hills where there is little
moisture. The stems reach 10 feet, and are sometimes thicker
than the thigh, though so soft that a very slight stroke oi 3
cutlass suffices to sever them. The small spatlies are fascicled
in the axils of the leaves, but of all that I opened the contents
were so injured by earwigs and other insects that it was impossible
to ascertain the structure of the flowers. . . . Species of
Anthurium and Philodcndron are frequent, and their deeply-cloven
or perforated leaves often assume grotesque forms. One very
beautiful climbing Aroidea, with shaggy petioles and leaves
streaked with deep violet above, purple beneath, I could n
find in flower.