Untitled - The Alfred Russel Wallace Website

28 NOTES OF A BOTANIST CHAP.
of room, and, besides what could be stowed down
below, had generally to be piled to an inconvenient
height on deck. We used to embark as much as
would last us from thirty to thirty-six hours, and we
consumed on an average seventy sticks an hour, the
sticks being a Portuguese vara (five spans) long and
three or four inches thick. Piles of firewood are
established at convenient distances all along the
banks. The wood which is most largely consumed
is that of the Mulatto tree, so called from its shining
bark, which is sometimes of a leaden-coloured hue,
at others verging on red. It is one of the most
abundant and at the same time handsomest trees all
along the Amazon, growing often to 100 feet high,
and in the spring-time bearing a profusion of white
flowers which may be compared to those of the
hawthorn for size and odour. The tree, however,
belongs to a very different tribe, and is closely allied
to the Cascarilla or Peruvian Bark tree. It was unknown
to botanists until I sent specimens from
Santarem, and Mr. Bentham has called it Enkylista
Spruceana.
The wood causes a good deal of flame,
and burns nearly as well when green as dry. . . .
Imagine the cabin passengers of the Monarca
stretched in their hammocks under an awning in
the poop eagerly listening to one of their number
reading from an old black-letter copy of the fabulous
history of " Carlos Magno," and amongst those
listeners were a Juiz de Direito, a Procurador
Publico, two military Commandants going to take
charge of garrisons at Ega and at the mouth of the
river lea, and an English botanist whom, at least,
one would have supposed far in advance of such
old-world fooleries. When I reached San Carlos in