Palm trees of the Amazon and their uses

by Alfred Russel Wallace

Baccába, Lingoa Geral.

This is a smooth thick-stemmed handsome tree, faintly ringed, and reaching fifty or sixty feet in height. The leaves are large, terminal, and pinnate. The leaflets are long; gradually pointed, and set at equal distances along the midrib. When young, the leaves are flat, the leaflets or pinnæ all standing out in the same plane; but in the full-grown tree the leaflets are in groups of two or three standing out at different angles from the general plane of the leaf, so as to give an irregular mixed appearance to the leaf. The petioles are greatly dilated at the base where they clasp the stem, and have a fibrous margin. The leaves as they die fall clean off from the stem, no part of the base remaining. The spathe is deciduous, being comparatively seldom visible. The fruits are of a violet or black colour when ripe, but are covered with a dense whitish bloom. They are prepared in the same way as the Assaí, but the pulp is of a pinkish cream-colour instead of purple, and the liquid is more oily, and of delicious flavour, somewhat resembling filberts and cream. It is said, however, not to be so wholesome as the Assaí, and in districts where intermittent fevers are prevalent, to bring them on, and to be particularly hurtful to persons recovering from that disease. A very beautiful oil is sometimes extracted from the pulp by pressure; it is perfectly clear, liquid, and inodorous; and serves as a substitute for olive oil, as well as being very good for lamps. The leaves are sometimes used for thatching when none better can be obtained; but owing to the irregularity of the pinnæ before mentioned, they are not much used.

This species inhabits the dry virgin forests of the Rio Negro and Upper Amazon. In the lower parts of that river and in the neighbourhood of Pará it is replaced by another species, the Œnocarpus distichus.

The Œ. baccába is growing at Kew.

One figure on the Plate shows the unopened spathe; the other has spadices with flowers and fruit.

Pl. XI.
W. Fitch lith. Ford & West Imp.
ŒNOCARPUS BATAWA. Ht. 50 Ft.

PLATES X. and XI.
Œnocarpus batawá, Martius.

Patawá, Lingoa Geral.

This species can hardly be distinguished from the Œnocarpus baccába when young. In the full-grown plant, however, the leaves preserve their regularity, the leaflets spreading out regularly in one plane and having a very beautiful appearance. The stem in old trees is fifty or sixty feet high and quite smooth, but in those growing in the shade of the forest, and in all young trees, the stem is completely hidden by the persistent bases of the decayed and fallen leaves. I have figured a tree in this state (Plate XI.).