The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey

by Candice Millard

About six feet long, the bows were made from the trunk of the peach-palm tree and were so stiff and difficult to pull that it is doubtful that any of the men in the expedition could have used a Cinta Larga bow had they found one.

As would-be cultivators of the Brazil nut would later discover to their dismay, the tree’s hooded flowers have evolved to require pollination by a small group of large-bodied bees which are strong enough to pry them open. Those bees, in turn, rely for their own reproduction on a certain type of rain forest orchid, whose absence or disruption is devastating to the production of nearby Brazil nut trees. Even when a mature fruit is successfully produced, moreover, the Brazil nut’s hard casing is so effective at deterring unwanted predators that it can only be opened and dispersed by the agouti, a small rodent with chisel-like teeth, whose presence also becomes essential to the tree’s reproductive process.