May we suppose that there are some trees with flowers purely
monoecious, mingled with others furnished with hermaphrodite flowers?
The Llaneros, or inhabitants of the plains, believe that all these
trees, though so low, are many centuries old. Their growth is almost
imperceptible, being scarcely to be noticed in the lapse of twenty or
thirty years. The wood of the palma de cobija is excellent for
building. It is so hard, that it is difficult to drive a nail into it.
The leaves, folded like a fan, are employed to cover the roofs of the
huts scattered through the Llanos; and these roofs last more than
twenty years. The leaves are fixed by bending the extremity of the
footstalks, which have been beaten beforehand between two stones, so
that they may bend without breaking.
Beside the solitary trunks of this palm-tree, we find dispersed here
and there in the steppes a few clumps, real groves (palmares), in
which the corypha is intermingled with a tree of the proteaceous
family, called chaparro by the natives. It is a new species of
rhopala,* (* Resembling the Embothrium, of which we found no species
in South America. The embothriums are represented in American
vegetation by the genera Lomatia and Oreocallis.) with hard and
resonant leaves. The little groves of rhopala are called chaparales;
and it may be supposed that, in a vast plain, where only two or three
species of trees are to be found, the chaparro, which affords shade,
is considered a highly valuable plant.
