_December 31st._—Again on our way back to Manaos, having made, on our return, another short stay at Taua Péassu, where, during the two days of our absence, the padre of the village had prepared a large collection of palms for Mr. Agassiz. Our collection of palms is becoming quite numerous; and though they must of course, in the process of drying, lose all their beauty of coloring, we hope they may retain something of the grace and dignity of their bearing. But even should this not be the case, they will answer every purpose of study, as with each one specimens of its fruit and flowers are preserved in alcohol. A palm has just been brought on board—the Baccába, or wine-palm (Œnocarpus)—from which the flowers droop in long crimson cords, with bright-green berries from distance to distance along their length, like an immense coral tassel, flecked here and there with green, hanging from the dark trunk of the tree. The mode of flowering of the cocoa-nut palm, which we see everywhere though it is not indigenous here, is very beautiful. The flowers burst from the sheath in a long plume of soft, creamy-white blossoms: such a plume is so heavy with the weight of pendent flowers that it can hardly be lifted; and its effect is very striking, hanging high up on the trunk, just under the green vault of leaves. I think there is nothing among the characteristic features of tropical scenery of which one forms less idea at home than of the palms. Their name is legion; the variety of their forms, of their foliage, fruit, and flowers, is perfectly bewildering; and yet, as a group, their character is unmistakable. The following extracts are taken from Mr. Agassiz’s notes on palms, written during this excursion on the Rio Negro. [Illustration: Fan Baccába (Œnocarpus distychius).]