One of the most striking characteristics of the forest vegetation is the
way in which many of the trunks of the trees are supported by
buttresses. The huge sumaumera is especially remarkable; but this
disposition to throw out supports is not confined to one tree. It
occurs in many families. These buttresses start at a distance of about
ten feet from the ground, separating greatly towards the base, where
they are often ten to twelve feet in depth. The lower part of the trunk
is thus divided into several open compartments, so large that, if roofed
over, they would form a hut with sufficient space for two people to
stand up or lie down in. Others, however, rise to the height of twenty
or thirty feet, and run up in the form of ribs to forty or fifty feet.
Other trees appear as if they were composed of a number of slender
stalks bound together, and are ribbed to their entire height. In some
places the furrows reach completely through them, and appear like the
narrow windows of a tower. The stems of others again rise on the summit
of numerous roots, like the bulging-stemmed palm, apparently standing on
a number of legs at the height of a dozen feet or more from the ground.
Often the roots thus form archways sufficiently large for a person to
walk beneath.