204 COMMENTARY ON THE PLANTS IN 
aecounts of Brazil which, although of older date than Piso's and Marc- 
grav's, may yet serve to expand and complete those which we owe to 
them, and moreover were in part known to Laetius, their first editor. 
It may therefore not be out of place, if we offer here some literary- 
historical notices concerning those comparatively little-known sources. 
The oldest information about the natural history of Brazil was 
given by the celebrated Jesuit Jos. de Anchieta, who already in the . 
year 1553, had arrived, together with six other brethren of his order, in 
the province of S. Paulo, where he long continued to display much in- 
fluential zeal in the conversion of the Indians, and the establishment 
of the Jesuits in the land. The information is, however, of little im- 
portance, as may be learnt from the edition published by the Royal 
, Academy of Lisbon*. : 
The next accounts are those of Andre Thevet in his * Singularités 
de la France antarctique, autrement nommée Amérique,’ Paris, 1558, 
4to. He eame from Angouléme, and accompanied the French Maltese 
Knight, Nic. Durant de Villegagnon in 1555 to the country about Rio 
de Janeiro, but returned home so early as in January 1557. Not- 
withstanding the information he gives has been pronounced as untrue 
in the highest degree, especially by Léry, it has this much in its 
favour, that it is the first which makes us acquainted with some of 
the useful plants of the aboriginal inhabitants of Brazil. Thus we 
recognize with certainty Ipomea Pes-cupre, Sw. (Convolv. brasilianus, 
L.) in Hetich, p. 53; Genipa brasiliensis, Mart., in Genipat, p. 59; 
Nicotiana Langsdorfii, Weinm., in Petun, p. 60; Musa Sapientum, in 
Pacovere, p. 61; Thevetia Ahouai, in Ahouai, p. 66; the Palm <Astro- 
caryum Airi, in Hairi, p. 72; Ananassa, in Nana, p. 89; Crescentia 
. Oujete, in Choyne, p. 105; Manihot utilissima, in Manihot, p. 114. 
The tree Hyuourahe, quoted at p. 96 b, as a substitute for Guajacum, 18 
Chrysophyllum glycyphlæum, Casar. Decad. stirp. brasil. p. 12; and Cæ- 
salpinia echinata, the genuine Brazil-wood, is described under the name 
Araboutan, at p. 116. 
More accurate and complete is the account given by Jean de Léry, 
born at La Margelle, terre de S. Sené, in Burgundy, who in his twenty- 
* Jos. de Anchieta epistola quam plurimarum rerum naturalium, quie S. Vincentii 
(nune S. Pauli) provincia isti, diede descriptionem a Didaco de Toledo Lars 
Ordonhez adjectis annotationibus edita, jussuque r. scient. Academiz Clisiponensis 
ejus memoriis ad historiam transmarinarum nationum conscribendam proficientibus 
adjecta. Olisip. 1799, 4to. 
