714 MR. SPRUCE'S BOTANICAL EXCURSION 
No. 20. Bark, leaves, flowers and fruit of a small tree, called 
Muruzi. Caripi, Rio Para, August 1849. Byrsonima, sp.? The 
bark contains a large proportion of tannin. It is also used as a dye, 
and when the Indians marched to the attack of Para, in the insurrection 
of 1835, they stained their garments red with the bark of the Muruxi. 
The fruit is yellow when ripe, and is considered very good eating. 
No. 21, Masseranduba, Milk-tree, or Cow-tree. (A piece of the 
wood, with milk flowing from the end; milk, solid and fluid ; leaves.) 
In virgin forests, at Tanaii, Rio Acard, Para. September 1849. The 
milk flows slowly from the wounded bark; its consistency is that of 
good cream, and its taste perfectly creamy and agreeable, with the 
exception of a very slight bitterness, derived probably from the outer 
rind. It is extremely viscid, and it is scarcely possible to get it off 
the hands or whatever else it touches; this property renders it a rather 
unsafe article of diet, and serious cases of constipation have resulted 
from its use by the woodeutters. The timber is excellent for the 
purposes of ship-building. The frigate Impératriz, built at Para, of 
the wood of the Masseranduba, and launched in 1823, is still in 
excellent condition. (Although I have seen only the leaves of the 
Masseranduba, I have no hesitation in referring it to the N.O. Sapotacee. 
May it not be the very same as the “Bully-tree”’ of Tobago, which seems 
to have the same solid and close-grained wood, and whose milk forms 
an excellent glue ?) 
No. 22. Tobacco-pipes made by the Indians of Caripi, on the Rio 
Para, and extensively used throughout the province; with specimens of 
the shrub (called Tacuari) from the slender branches of which the tubes 
are made, 
No. 23. Shell and leaves of the Sapucaya (Lecythis ollaria), Caripi, 
on the Rio Para. August 1849. 
No. 24. Leaves and resin of a tree called ** Bred branco” (t. €., 
white pitch). Caripi, on the Rio Parà. August 1849. The resin is 
in great request at Para for caulking ships. The tall straight irunks 
are used for masts. 
No. 25. Bertholletia excelsa, Humb. (Castanheira, Bras.) (Bark 
and half-decayed fruits.) Tanaü, Rio Acarà, Pari, September 1849. 
The bark, beaten as in the accompanying specimen, is used at Para, 
along with the Bred branco, for caulking ships. The castanhas can 
only escape from the shell by the decay of the latter, though a forcible 
