nie a et en 
KEW GARDEN MUSEUM. 277 
by Maquiritare and Piaroa Indians, on the Orinoco. Applied in plas- 
ters to the chest, etc., as Burgundy pitch in Europe. 
186. Peramán, a sort of pitch, prepared by Piaroa Indians on Ori- 
noco. Apparently identical with Oanané of Brazil, and certainly ex- 
tracted from a species of Moronobea, which, from its leaves, I cannot 
distinguish from M. coccinea. At San Carlos it is called Mani. 
187. Bark of Jatuá-úba, a small tree on the banks of the Rio Negro, 
especially in the lower part. A powerful emetic, which has great repu- 
tation in cases of ague. It was given to me in a sitio at the mouth of 
the Xibarü. The tree is still unknown to me. 
188. Oil-bottle used by the Maquiritares, on the Rio Cunueunüma. 
It is merely à gourd, cased in a basket-work of Uarumá, and had con- . 
tained Bacaba oil. 
189. Mandiocca-graters, made on the Rio Icanna, which enters the 
Rio Negro from the east, a little way above the mouth of the Uaupés. 
Made of the soft but tenacious wood of an Apocyneous tree (2265 to 
Benth). The stones are chiefly a bluish, fine-grained granite, from the 
Tcanna, broken into fragments of convenient size. Design scratched 
with point of a large nail; then with the same a hole is pricked for 
the insertion of each stone, and a blow of the nail-head secures it in 
its place. The grater thus formed is anointed with milk of Cumá 
(Couma dulcis, Benth., and other Apocyneous trees, probably of the 
same genus), which is a powerful adhesive, not affected by juice of 
Mandiocca or other moisture. I have seen graters which were decayed 
and almost worn through at back, while not a tooth had fallen out. 
Icanna graters are in great request throughout the Rio Negro and 
Amazon, and even on the Orinoco. 
190. Wooden instrument, shaped rather like a hatchet, hung over 
the left shoulder by Uaupés Indians in their dances; whether it has 
any other use T cannot say. 
191. Petioles of the Piassaba Palm (Leopoldinia Piassaba, Wallace), 
showing the mode of growth of the “ beard," which is quite analogous - 
to the matted sheath of the fronds of the common Cocoa, the beard of — 
the Patauá, etc. The “ Piassaba" used for making ropes, etc., is taken 
from young trees only, of from three to five feet high; for as the trunk 
grows higher, the beard of each frond grows gradually shorter, so as 
to be unserviceable for such purposes. I enclose the long beard taken 
from a tree four feet high, and others from a tree of forty feet. Forests 
on the Guainia and Casiquiare. November, 1854. 
