Herva de Cobra(Serpent-Herb) is a small plant resembling a little the fern in its foliage, the flower is small and yellow, with five petals, and its fruit is a very little berry. The name arises from its virtue in curing the bite of a snake by placing the leaves pounded upon the wound and giving the patient the juice to drink.
TheJabuticabeira, orJabuticaba-Tree, is small and slender, with smooth bark; the leaves, which are varnished on both sides, but not of the same green, vary in form upon the same branch. Itflowers upon the trunk only, beginning at the ground, and extending to the branches, that are thick; the fruit is generally of the size and colour of a cherry, and of a good flavour; a strong liquor is distilled from it.
TheJambeira, orJamba-Tree, whose size is proportioned to the quality of the ground upon which it grows, has a pointed leaf, with dark green on the upper side, and clear green on the under; the flower has four small petals in the form of a shell, with numerous long and upright capillaments, and a pointed pistil still longer; its fruit resembles an apricot, has a fine flavour, and smells like a rose.
TheJaqueira, orJaca-Tree, transplanted from Asia, and prospering only in the tropics, is a large tree, with a round tuft, a thick trunk, large leaves rounded at the extremity and pointed at the base, varnished on both sides, the upper one of dark green. Its fruit, which only grows upon the trunk and main branches, is very large, (some forty pounds weight,) of an oblong form; the skin is green, rough-grained, and thick; the white pulp is fibrous, and impregnated with viscous milk; but it has another pulp, sown promiscuously with a sort of almond, less fibrous, without milk, and sweet, and which is the part eaten.
Jatuba, which has not this name in all the provinces, fructifies in husks like the tamarind-tree.
Jenipapeiro, orJenipapo-Tree, is of good height with the trunk erect, the tuft round and of medium size; the leaf is similar to that of the chestnut, very thick, and of a dark green; it is never without fruit, which is the size of an apple, the skin tenuous, a little harsh, and of an ash colour, the pulp is white, and the interior full of seed. They remain from one year to the next upon the branches, which wholly shed their foliage, and only change when the tree puts forth its new leaves, and when already the new fruit, for the following year, is of good growth. Its wood is preferred for the shafts of thesege, or cabriolet.
Jiquitibais a tree of considerable girth and affords a nut.
TheJoazeiro, orJoaza-Tree, which grows in sandy soils, is of the size of a middling olive-tree; its tuft is round and thick; the leaves, which it scarcely sheds, are round and carefully protected; its wood is white, and its ashes are a good substitute for soap. The flower is in small and round bunches; the fruit is of the size of a cherry, oblong, yellow, disagreeable to the touch, and with a stone (full of smaller ones) which is difficult to divest of the pulp when the fruit is not half dried. It is aliment for some quadrupeds, and for thejacuand other birds, although few are well flavoured.
Mangabeira, orMangaba-Tree, is of medium size, with small pointed leaves, and a flower like thejasmine; the fruit is round and of various sizes upon the same branch, with a yellow and greenish rind; the pulp white, extremely soft, with various seeds covered with down; the wood, the leaves, the flowers, and the fruit, when parted, distil a clammy and white milk.
TheMangueis a small tree, with a smooth rind, thick and varnished leaves. It prospers only upon the sea-coast or the margins of salt rivers.
TheMangueira, orMangua-Tree, transplanted from Asia, and prospering only in the torrid zone, is a bulky tree, with a leafy tuft, having a long leaf a little narrow and pointed. The fruit is the size of an apple and a little flat, the skin similar to a greengage, green or yellow, and tinged sometimes with red; when divested of the skin, which has a turpentine taste, the pulp is juicy and delicious, although unpleasantly full of fibres attached to the stone.
Mozesis a tree of medium height, slender, with little tuft, remarkable for its foliage, which does not differ from the fern; its flower is white, and its ashes are good for the lixivium of soap.
Mucoryis a large tree of excellent timber; its fruit is of the size of a sloe, yellow, and odoriferous, of very fine flavour, and has a large stone.
Muricyis a shrub, with large thick and harsh leaves, rounded at the end and pointed at the base; the flowers are in bunches, beginning with yellow and turning to a carnation colour; the fruit is very small, with little flavour. There is another calledmuricy-bravo, (or wild,) differing in the flower, which is white, and in the leaves, which are much less elliptical and varnished on both sides.
Oytyis a middling tree, of good timber, with fruit well flavoured, and of the colour and form of a pear, with a large stone, which, when ground or scraped, and used as a beverage or as a clyster, is an efficacious remedy against diarrhæas.
ThePalm-tree of Dates, which is so abundant in Asia and Africa, are introduced only, and very partially, in the province of Rio de Janeiro.
Amongst the multiplied species ofPalm-treesthat denominatedTucumorTycumis particularly remarkable; its trunk is thorny, slender, and of proportionable size; its leaves differ a little from the common resemblance observed amongst all the other palm-trees; from its fibres a flax is made that is a little harsh, but as lustrous as silk, without any appearance of the coarsest description of flax, and which, from its strength, is generally consumed in making fishing-tackle. It is well adapted for making a certain sort of lace.
Pindahibais a handsome tree, and of proportionable size according to the quality of the soil in which it grows; its wood is light; its leaves are lancet, one inch in width, and from three to four in length; it fructifies in very small bunches, and its berries are sometimes used as peppers.
Piquiha, is a medium-sized tree, affording fruit like the quince, with a thick and hard rind, and full of a gray liquor, very sweet and cooling, with some seed like those of an apple.
Pitangueira, orPitanga-Tree, which reaches the size of a plum-tree when planted in good ground, but generally not exceeding the size of a middling shrub in the woods; its leaf resembles that of the myrtle; the flower is white and small, with a great number of capillaments; the fruit is the size of an unripe cherry, of a scarlet or purple colour, and rather sour. An agreeable spirit is distilled from it.
Quinaquina, theJesuitorPeruvian Bark, was discovered about three centuries ago in Peru, and met with only a few years since near the heads of the river Cuiaba; it is a high tree, nine inches in diameter; the leaves are round at the base and pointed at the end, glossy and of a beautiful green above, and striped with a brilliant dark green in the half near the base. The flowers, which are in bunches at the extremity of the branches, are shaped like a funnel, with the edge parted into five lancet forms, and shorter than the tube, hairy, green in the middle, bounded with white, and fringed at the borders. The pistil is white, and surrounded with five capillaments, within the tube of the flower. When the flower falls the cup swells at the middle, and takes the shape of an olive, changing into a fruit, whose numerous seed, which are long, thick, of a green colour, and flat at the edge, are enclosed in two lodgements, divided by a double membrane. Thus a tree so useful to mankind is propagated abundantly.
Amongst theResin-Treesare theAngico, which produce the gum-copal; those that produce mastick, benzoin, and storax; amongst those that distil balsam are the cabureigba, better known by the name ofBalsam of the Holy Spirit, the cupahybu, or capivi, and the cumaru.
Amongst the medicinal plants is noted sarsaparilla, ipecacuhana, jalap,butua, purging cassia, quassia,aristoloquia, or hart-wort,cahinana, Jesuit’s bark of the country, ginger,capeba, commonly called herb of St. Luzia, from its great virtue on application to diseases of the eyes. It is said that a surgeon of Rio de Janeiro, in the year 1784, by only using the juice of this plant, in the course of three months, restored the eye of a soldier to its former state, which had been injured bythe point of a bayonet. Marvellous cures are related of this vegetable, which is said to regenerate the sight; experiments have been made by perforating the eye of a cock with sharp instruments, and on applying the juice or even the milk of this herb it is asserted that the eye has been cured in a few hours, and the sight restored. Thecurucu, whose juice, when drunk with water, is an efficacious stiptic for a bleeding at the mouth. There is alsobetony, ground-ivy, but very different from that of Europe, with a leaf resembling the rosemary, and a small white flower in a species of artichoke; theherva ferro(iron herb); the herbs mercury,eurucucu, and mallows;orelha d’onça, (ear of the ounce,) generally two feet in height, the leaf like a heart, flat, and hairy on both sides, of a pearl colour, and as flexible when dried as when green; the plant calledhervachumbo; and many others.
Sapucayais a high tree of good timber, with a leaf similar to that of the peach; the bark, softened, produces a tow for caulking vessels. Its produces a very large spherical nut, full of long almonds. For their extraction nature has formed an orifice at the extremity four inches in diameter, covered with a lid of the same size, which has over it an outer rind similar to that of the whole nut, and of which it is necessary to strip it in order to find the entrance. The monkeys, by instinct, shake off this species of cocoa-nut when ripe, and with a stone, or hard piece of wood displace the lid and eat the almonds.
St. Caetanois a delicate plant, resembling that of a water-melon; its fruit is a species of small cucumber and thorny; it opens in three portions when ripe, exhibiting some small seed similar to those of the pomegranite. It is the sustenance of birds, who, carrying its seed, propagate it in all parts. This plant is applied to various domestic purposes, and augments the properties of soap in its ordinary use; on this account it was transplanted from the coast of Guinea, where it is calledNheziken, and being planted near a chapel of St. Caetano, took the name of that saint.
Tababuyais a tree remarkable for the lightness of its wood, of which scarcely any thing is made besides corks and floats for fishing-nets; it resists all instruments except such as are used for cork¬cutting.
Tarumanis a shrub with lancet leaves of unequal size; the tea of these leaves have a diluent effect upon stones in the bladder.
Theuis a delicatesipoor plant of long and flexible shoots, scarcely exceeding the thickness of a hen’s quil, but of extraordinary growth, always winding round other larger plants and trees. I have seen them so firmly entwined round orange-trees that the prosperity and fructification of the tree was impeded by them; its leaf is exceedingly small, resembling that of the broom; the root is nearly two yards in length, having a strong smell, and operating as an emetic, and is an approved remedy against the venom of snakes.
A great diversity of piratical trees or plants are observed in the Brazil, fixed to the bark or body of others, and nourished alone by their substance. In some parts there are divers species of climbers which rise to the top of the highest trees, sometimes unaccompanied, at other times twisted spirally with another of the same, or of a different species. Occasionally these prodigiously long cords have four, six, or more legs, or shoots.
Tinguyis a small tree with the branches and leaves alternate; the latter are small and lancet. The bark and leaves well pounded, and put into lakes, &c. cause the fish to die, from becoming soon intoxicated with it.
TheUrucudoes not in general exceed the size of a large shrub; the leaves are in the form of a heart, and the flowers in bunches with fine petals a little purpled, a pistil, and a great number ofcapillaments; the fruit is a capsule, a little flat and pointed, of the size of a large chestnut, and of a green colour, composed of two valves or folds, covered with fine soft thorns, and lined with a membrane that encircles a large quantity of small seed, having over them a green substance which, when diluted in water, affords a precious dye. The Indians are not ignorant of this, and use it to paint their bodies.
Vinhaticois a high and straight tree of yellow wood, and fructifies in pods with beans.
There are a variety of edible roots:—potatoes of various kinds; mandioca, of which is made the usual bread of the country; its plant, of which there are various sorts, is a shrub of one or more stems; the root, after being scraped and reduced to flour, is pressed until exhausted of its abundant juice, which is generally poisonous, and is ultimately toasted in a large earthern or copper vessel over a furnace till it becomes dry; this vegetable prospers well only in substantial soils: it is planted in little mounds of earth, by putting into each half the stock of the plant, which is a span in length. Theaypimis a species of mandioca, whose root is boiled or roasted. Themendubimis a plant of little growth, with leaves similar to the French bean, producing beans at the root with a gray skin, which encloses from one to three small seed. Thepotatoe do ar, a creeping plant, without a flower preceding it, produces a fruit of irregular form, without stone or seed, is covered with a thin and green skin, and has the taste of the potatoe.
Besides the fruits mentioned there are many others, amongst which are the pine, oratta, the size of a quince, with a white, soft, and savoury pulp; theconde, which is of the size of the preceding, with the pulp equally soft, but not so white; themammaois larger, with a smooth and yellow skin, and the pulp of the same colour; thepitomba; themocuge; of thebanana, whose length exceeds many times its diameter, there are three sorts, the whole having a thick skin, and clustered upon one stalk; the plant which produces them is of considerable growth, without either branches or wood in the trunk; the leaves are very long, slender, and smooth, with proportionable width, and the back fibres very thick; the trunk is formed of the leaves firmly woven together, being two or three yards in height, round, erect, and inflexible, the leaves branching out from it at the top. The pine-apple, resembling a pine, with various leaves in the eye, is of delicious flavour and aromatic scent; the plant from whose centre it issues is very similar to the aloe. Themuracujais of the size of an orange, oblong and regular, with a thick and hard skin, green on the outside and white within; it is full of gross and rather sour liquid, containing seeds similar to those of the melon.
The sugar-cane, mandioca, tobacco, and the matte-plant, are all indigenous, and now cultivated to a great extent with considerable advantage, furnishing many lucrative branches of commerce.
The indigo-plant and opuncia are met with almost in all parts; the first, which only prospers in strong soils, is yet cultivated but in few provinces. There are a diversity of peppers; that of Malabar, which only thrives in substantial and fresh soils, has been cultivated only within a few years.
The plant commonly calledmalicia de mulker(woman’s malice) is a creeping and thorny twig, with very small foliage, whose little leaves obtain their opposite one’s, when they immediately adhere, so that the twig is encircled, and remains in this state for a considerable time.
THE END.