Untitled - The Alfred Russel Wallace Website

380
NOTES OF A BOTANIST
are (with one notable exception a
) no aquatics and
no shore grasses. Compare this with the broad
fringe of tall, succulent, amphibious grasses on the
shores of the Amazon, or detached and floating down
it in the shape of large islands, and of luxuriant
aquatics, some fixed by roots, others floating
(Victoria, Jussiaea, Pontederia, Frogbits, Azolla,
Salvinia, Pistia, etc.), in deep still bays, but especially
in lakes and channels communicating with the
main river.
Some of the tributaries of the Rio Negro, how-
those of more or
ever, have plenty of fish, namely,
less turbid water, of which the Rio Branco holds
the first rank, and after it come the Marania and
Cauaboris, all entering on the left bank. In these
rivers many Amazon fish are said to be repeated.
About the
"
mouth of the Rio Branco is the only
place in the Rio Negro where the Pirarucii is found
-that noble and remarkable fish, so characteristic
of the Amazon. With the exception of the Pirarucu,
most of the larger fish of the Amazon recur on the
Upper Orinoco, above the cataracts ; at least the
Indians assert them to be the same, and to unskilled
eyes they are undistinguishable. The Valenton
or Lablab of the Orinoco, for instance, is surely
the same as the large Pirahyba of the Amazon ;
the Pavon as the Tucunare ; the Rallado as the
Surubim ; the Muruciitu as the ; Tambaqui the
Cajaru as the Pira-arara, and so on.
Many of the fishes of the Rio Negro travel up it
to spawn, and especially up some of its tributaries ;
Inn the wanderings to and fro of fish in quest of
That of the Podostemons on granite rocks in the falls and rapids.