Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 2 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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The Centre Of Every Leaf, No Doubt From The Effect Of Some Disease Of
The Parenchyma, Concentric Circles Of Alternate Blue And Yellow
Appear, The Yellow Prevailing Towards The Middle.
We were singularly
struck by this appearance; the leaves, coloured like the peacock's
tail, are supported by short and very thick trunks.
The thorns are not
slender and long like those of the corozo and other thorny palm-trees;
but on the contrary, very woody, short, and broad at the base, like
the thorns of the Hura crepitans. On the banks of the Atabapo and the
Temi, this palm-tree is distributed in groups of twelve or fifteen
stems, close together, and looking as if they rose from the same root.
These trees resemble in their appearance, form, and scarcity of
leaves, the fan-palms and palmettos of the Old World. We remarked that
some plants of the juria were entirely destitute of fruit, and others
exhibited a considerable quantity; this circumstance seems to indicate
a palm-tree of separate sexes.
Wherever the Rio Temi forms coves, the forest is inundated to the
extent of more than half a square league. To avoid the sinuosities of
the river and shorten the passage, the navigation is here performed in
a very extraordinary manner. The Indians made us leave the bed of the
river; and we proceeded southward across the forest, through paths
(sendas), that is, through open channels of four or five feet broad.
The depth of the water seldom exceeds half a fathom.
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