[1]. A small stream, literally “path of the canoe.”
The trees of this genus also furnish another article of food. The undeveloped leaves in the centre of the column form a white sweetish mass, which when boiled somewhat resembles artichoke or parsnep, and is a very good and wholesome vegetable. It may also be eaten raw, cut up and dressed as a salad with oil and vinegar. As, however, to obtain it the tree must be destroyed, it is not much used in Pará, except by travellers in the forest who have no particular interest in the preservation of the trees for fruit. The Cabbage Palm of the West Indies is an allied species, and is used for food in the same manner.
Very fine specimens of this tree may be seen in the great Palm House at Kew, where they grow almost as luxuriantly as in their native forests.
In the Plate, the unopened spathe, flower-spadix and fruit are represented, as they are often found, together on the same tree.
Euterpe ——?
On the banks of the Rio Negro there appears to be another species of this genus, closely allied to the Euterpe oleracea, but the stem is thicker and straighter, the whole tree larger, and the leaf-column thicker, and of a clear green colour. It grows on the dry land of the virgin forest, or sometimes within the limits of the winter’s inundations. I unfortunately neglected to examine into its peculiar characters, as until my return to Pará I had considered it identical with the species so common there.
I was also informed that in the island of Marajó there is a species or variety having white fruit, but I had no opportunity of examining it.
Pl. VIII.
W. Fitch lith. Ford & West Imp.
EUTERPE CATINGA. Ht. 40 Ft.