EXCURSIONS ON THE COAST.
391
many families; it seems, indeed, a characteristic feature of forest vegetation here. Occasionally the buttresses partially separate from the main trunk, remaining attached to it only at the point from which they start, so that they look like
Buttressed Tree (Eriodendrum Sumauma),
distinct supports propping the tree. I copy here an extract from Mr. Agassiz's notes upon the vegetation of the Amazons, in which allusion is made to the Snmaumera. "Anyone coming from' the orth to the Tropics, if he bas been in the habit of observing the vegetation about