PLATE VII.Euterpe oleracea,Martius.

AssaÃ,Lingoa Geral.

The AssaÃ of ParÃ¡ is a tall and slender tree, from sixty to eighty feet high, and about four inches in diameter. The stem is very smooth, of a pale colour, and generally waving, sometimes very much curved. The leaves are of moderate size, of a pale bright green, regularly pinnate, and with the leaflets much drooping. The column formed by the sheathing bases of the leaves is of an olive colour. The flowers are small, whitish, and very thickly set on the simply branched spadix. There are generally two or three, and sometimes even five or six spadices, growing out horizontally from a little below the leaf-column. The spathe is smooth and membranous, and falls off as the spadix opens. The fruit when ripe is about the size and colour of a sloe. It consists of a hard albuminous seed, with a rather fibrous exterior, and a very thin covering of a firm pulp or flesh.

This species is very abundant in the neighbourhood of ParÃ¡, and even in the city itself. It grows in swamps flooded by the high tides,â€”never on dry land. Its straight cylindrical stem is sometimes used for poles and rafters; but the tree is generally considered too valuable to be cut down for such purposes. A very favourite drink is made from the ripe fruit, and dailyvended in the streets of ParÃ¡. Indian and negro girls may be constantly seen walking about with small earthen pots on their heads, uttering at intervals a shrill cry of AssaÃâ€”â€”Ã. If you call one of these dusky maidens, she will set down her pot, and you will see it filled with a thick creamy liquid, of a fine plum colour. A pennyworth of this will fill a tumbler, and you may then add a little sugar to your taste, and will find a peculiar nut-flavoured liquid, which you may not perhaps think a great deal of at first; but, if you repeat your experience a few times, you will inevitably become so fond of it as to consider â€œAssaÃâ€ one of the greatest luxuries the place produces. It is generally taken with farinha, the substitute for bread prepared from the mandiocca root, and with or without sugar, according to the taste of the consumer.

During our walks in the suburbs of ParÃ¡ we had frequently opportunities of seeing the preparation of this favourite beverage. Two or three large bunches of fruit are brought in from the forest. The women of the house seize upon them, shake and strip them into a large earthen vessel, and pour on them warm water, not too hot to bear the hand in. The water soon becomes tinged with purple, and in about an hour the outer pulp has become soft enough to rub off. The water is now most of it poured away, a little cold added, and a damsel, with no sleeves to turn up, plunges both hands into the vessel, and rubs and kneads with great perseverance, adding fresh water as it is required, till the whole of the purple covering has been rubbed offand the greenish stones left bare. The liquid is now poured through a wicker sieve into another vessel, and is then ready for use. The smiling hostess will then fill a calabash, and give you another with farinha to mix to your taste; and nothing will delight her more than your emptying your rustic basin and asking her to refill it.

The inhabitants of ParÃ¡ are excessively attached to this beverage, and many never pass a day of their lives without it. They are particularly favoured too, in being able to get it at all seasons, for though in most places the trees only bear for a few months once in the year, yet in the neighbourhood of ParÃ¡ there is so much variety of soil and aspect, that within a day or twoâ€™s journey, there is always some ripe AssaÃ to supply the market. Boys climb up the trees to get it, with a cord round the ankles (as shown on the Plate), and with its own leaves make a neatly interlaced basket to carry it home. From the great island of MarajÃ³, its igaripÃ©s[1]and marshes, from the rivers GuamÃ¡ and MojÃº, from the thousand islands in the river, and from the vast palm swamps in the depths of the forest, baskets of the fruit are brought every morning to the city, where half the population look to the AssaÃ to supply a daily meal, and hundreds are said to make it, with farinha, almost their main subsistence.

1. A small stream, literally â€œpath of the canoe.â€

The trees of this genus also furnish another article of food. The undeveloped leaves in the centre of the column form a white sweetish mass, which when boiledsomewhat resembles artichoke or parsnep, and is a very good and wholesome vegetable. It may also be eaten raw, cut up and dressed as a salad with oil and vinegar. As, however, to obtain it the tree must be destroyed, it is not much used in ParÃ¡, except by travellers in the forest who have no particular interest in the preservation of the trees for fruit. The Cabbage Palm of the West Indies is an allied species, and is used for food in the same manner.

Very fine specimens of this tree may be seen in the great Palm House at Kew, where they grow almost as luxuriantly as in their native forests.

In the Plate, the unopened spathe, flower-spadix and fruit are represented, as they are often found, together on the same tree.

On the banks of the Rio Negro there appears to be another species of this genus, closely allied to theEuterpe oleracea, but the stem is thicker and straighter, the whole tree larger, and the leaf-column thicker, and of a clear green colour. It grows on the dry land of the virgin forest, or sometimes within the limits of the winterâ€™s inundations. I unfortunately neglected to examine into its peculiar characters, as until my return to ParÃ¡ I had considered it identical with the species so common there.

I was also informed that in the island of MarajÃ³ there is a species or variety having white fruit, but I had no opportunity of examining it.

Pl. VIII.W. Fitch lith.Ford & West Imp.EUTERPE CATINGA. Ht. 40 Ft.

Back to Index Next