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356
NOTES OF A BOTANIST
is not visible, by the varied tints of the foliage, and
by the trees rarely equalling those of the Virgin
Forest in height sometimes, indeed, beginning on
the water's edge as low bushes, thence gradually
growing higher as they advance inland, until at the
limit of inundations they mingle with the primeval
woods, and are almost equally lofty by the greater
proportion of herbaceous lianas which drape the
trees and often form a curtain-like frontage and
by the abundance of Palms, whereof the taller kinds
usually surpass the exogenous trees in height, and
(the Fan palms especially) often stretch in long
avenue-like lines along, or parallel to, the shore.
On some black-water rivers, such as the Pacimoni,
the Atabapo, and the Rio Negro in some parts of
its course, the breadth of inundated land is entirely
clad with bushes and small trees of very equable
height, on the skirts of which the Virgin Forest
rises abruptly to a height more than twice as great.
This is called by the natives " caatinga-gapo."
Besides these differences of aspect, the natives
will tell you there are other more intrinsic ones ;
for
instance, that the riparial trees have softer and more
perishable timber, as well as inferior fruits ; while
the caatingas, with a far greater show of blossom,
have hardly any edible fruit at all, and very few
indeed of the trees rise to the magnitude of timber
trees. And yet, when the constituent plants of the
different classes of forest come to be compared to-
gether, they are found to correspond to a degree
for although the species are
quite unexpected ;
almost entirely diverse, the differences are rarely
more than specific.
It is only in the caatingas that
a few genera, each including several species, seem