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278 NEW PUBLICATION.
(which ill many instances have proved extremely rich) running into it. Further
on, the eye, passing over dense vii'gin forests, encounters green savanas."
Dr. Seemaun had a picket cut through the virgin forests, in order
to gain a more ready access to the Atlantic seaboard. An official re-
port on the first forty miles, by the surveyor, addressed to him, is here
inserted, and contains the first botanical information we have about
this unknown district. The picket was cut from the Javali Gold
Mine, and about four miles oif the exploring party found several Cedro
trees {Cedrela odorata) cut down, probably by wild Indians, Nine
miles off
—
" commences a regular Coyolal (palm grove), which extends over a plateau of
at least four miles, the Palm-trees being so close and regular that the whole
looks as if planted. The trees were heavily laden with four to eight bunches
of coyol nuts ; and there were also many of the so-called Corozo Palms (^Attalea
Cohune), which, by their gigantic size and singular flowers, presented a
beautiful appearance. Eleven miles off the quebreda has sufficient water to
di'ive a mill for the purpose of making coyol oil, which, in my opinion, might
prove a profitable business where, as is here the case, it could be carried on on
a large scale, there being millions of these oil-yielding Palms."
At sixteen miles off
—
" There is a quantity of wild Cacao {Theohroma Cacao), and also of the small
Cacao {Herrania imrpurea), which you took to England with you; of course,
conclusive proof of the fertility of the soil. We also found a little Sugar-cane,
which may have been planted by the Indians."
Dr. Seemann's pages close with his second visit to Nicaragua, his
third, from which he has only recently retiu-ned, not being alluded to.
It was during this third visit that lie was so fortunate as to discover,
near the Javali Mine, the gigantic Ai-oid, on which the ' Gardeners'
Chronicle ' had the following communication, extracted from a letter
of Dr. Seemann to Mr. William Bull, and also the subsequent
article :
" I have just procured for you a truly wonderful Aroid, wliich has, so far as
my knowledge goes, the largest flowers (say, rather, spathes) known in the
Natural Order to which it belongs. Just imagine a peduncle rising from a
rhizome larger than a man's head, and being itself four feet high and four
inches in diameter, bearing an upright spathe, which measures two feet in
length, and one foot eight inches aci'oss, and enclosing a spadix four niches long
and nine hues across. Like my Sapranthtis Nicaraguensis, it emits a powerful
carrion-like smell, and has also on the outside the same dark purplish-blue
colour as' the beautiful Anonacea just mentioned. The spathe is reddisli-brown,
with the exception of the part surrounding the spadix, which is yellowish-white.
The plant has only one leaf, wluch also rises from the rhizome, and after fully
developing, dies off The wliole length of the leaf is thirteen feet eight inches ;
the petiole alone measures ten feet (all the measurements are Enghsli).