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Updated: June 19, 2025
This plant is found in moist places, such as are suited to the growth of ferns, mangroves and palmate shrubs. It has pendent from each leaf a natural pitcher or elongated cup, growing perfectly upright and capable of holding a pint or more of liquid. It is provided also with a natural cover, which when closed prevents the ingress of leaves or rubbish falling from other trees.
Yet even there we may trace such analogies, as between the Palmate or Aquatic Birds, for instance, and the Birds of Prey, or between the Frigate Bird and the Kites. Among Fishes such analogies are very common, often suggesting a comparison even with land animals, though on account of the scales and spines of the former the likeness may not be easily traced.
It is, as a matter of fact, remarkable that it has not taken place in more numerous instances, and the mallows show that such opportunities have been available at least more than once. Other instances of taxonomic anomalies are afforded by leaves. Many genera, the species of which mainly bear pinnate or palmate leaves, have stray types with undivided leaves.
Also a species of Hibiscus, with rough palmate leaves, large bright sulphur-coloured flowers, with a rich purple spot at the base of each petal, the stamens and stigma bright red, the blossoms when fully expanded eight inches in circumference; the plant has a very erect habit. Also another Hibiscus, with obcordate tomentose leaves, and pink flowers; both these last were very handsome shrubs.
These monophyllous varieties are interesting also on account of their continuous but often incomplete reversion to the normal type. Pinnate and palmate leaves are no doubt derivative types. They must have originated from the ordinary simple leaf. The monophylly may therefore be considered as a reversion to a more primitive state and the monophyllous varieties may be called atavistic.
The corypha spreads through the Llanos of Caracas from Mesa de Peja as far as Guayaval; farther north and north-west, near Guanare and San Carlos, its place is taken by another species of the same genus, with leaves alike palmate but larger. It is the sago-tree of America, furnishing flour, wine, thread for weaving hammocks, baskets, nets, and clothing.
We saw also a few specimens of the hutan, a strange-looking palmate shrub with leaves fifteen feet long, which are generally used by the Malays for sails, in lieu of canvas, for their piratical proas.
A few coniferae of the genus Dacrydium here first appeared, and in the thickets just above the rocky surface we walked through groves of those splendid ferns Dipteris Horsfieldii and Matonia pectinata, which bear large spreading palmate fronds on slender stems six or eight feet high.
For if the change of compound leaves into single ones is a retrograde or negative step, the conversion of single or ternate leaves into pinnate and palmate ones must evidently be considered in this case as positive atavism. This discussion seems to throw some light on the increase of leaflets in the clover.
This tree was deciduous, the leaves being palmate, and grew on stiff soil: its large crimson flowers attracted universal admiration. We crossed the river at a spot where its banks were not so steep, and where there was but from one to three feet of water; in some places the bottom was sandy and in others rocky, but we could see rock only in the bed of the river.
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