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AMAZONIAN VEGETATION 35;
to have taken up their exclusive abode : such are
Commianthus among Rubiaceae, Pagamea among
Loganiacese, Myrrnidone and Majeta among Melastomaceae
; and there are a few other peculiar genera,
chiefly monotypic. But, of the riparial plants,
nearly every species has its congener on terra
firme, to which it stands so near that, although
the two must of right bear different names, the
differences of structure are precisely such as might
have been brought about by long exposure even
to the existing state of things, without supposing
them to date from widely different conditions in
the remote ; past and this is especially true of such
genera as Inga, Pithecolobium, Lecythis, and of
many Myrtles and Melastomes, Sapotads, etc.
As an illustration of the features which tend to
impress a certain character of uniformity
on the
vegetation of the Amazon region,
case of a single tree, Bertholletia excelsa (H. and B.)
I will take the
-perhaps the noblest tree of the Amazon region,
and the most characteristic of its Vircrin Forests
o
and briefly sketch its distribution. In aspect and
foliage it is not unlike a gigantic Chestnut tree ;
and the seeds (the Para nut of commerce), if not
much like chestnuts in their trigonous bony shell,
are not very different in taste, whence the Brazilian
name of the tree, " Castanheira," and of the seeds
" castanhas." This tree is found almost throughout
the Amazon valley, both to north and south, chiefly
wherever there is a great depth of that red loam
which it pleases M. Agassiz to call "glacial drift."
About Para itself there is no lack of it, especially
in the fine woods of Tauaii ;
and
1200 miles farther
to the west it may be seen in some abundance- on