202 Mr. Schomburgk on the Snake-nut Tree, 



XXIII. — Description of the Snake-nut Tree of Guiana, By 

 Robert H. Schomburgk^ CM. R.G.S.* 



[With a Plate.] 



For several years past nuts of the size of a walnut were 

 brought from the interior to Georgetown in Demerara, the 

 kernel of which when opened^ and the membrane which co- 

 vered it being removed^ displayed the striking resemblance to 

 a snake ^ coiled up.^ There was the head, the mouth, the 

 eyes, so complete, that one unacquainted with the fact would 

 have believed them to be an imitation made by human hands> 

 and not a freak of nature. As is often the case with the pro- 

 ductions of the interior, the colonists were entirely unac- 

 quainted with the mode of growth of the plant which pro- 

 duced these strange nuts. 



They were generally found after the annual swelling of the 

 Essequibo had subsided along its banks, and for a length of 

 time it was pretended that they grew on a creeper ; and from 

 the resemblance of its kernel to a snake, it was supposed that 

 it might prove an antidote to snake-poison. After my return 

 from the interior of British Guiana, and while at the post 

 Ampa at the Essequibo, I ascertained from Mr. Richardson, 

 then postholder, that the snake-nut was the fruit of a large 

 tree, and that several grew in the vicinity of his abode. I 

 therefore embraced the first opportunity to ascend the brook 

 Ampa in order to see it. 



The tree stood near the banks of the brook, as also did 

 other trees of the same description which I saw afterwards, 

 and this explains its fruits being so frequently found along 

 the low banks of the islands Leguan, Wakenaam, &c., on 

 the mouth of the Essequibo. 



The tree was just about ceasing to bear for the season, and 

 began to put forth its blossoms ; unfortunately they were not 

 far enough advanced to determine without hesitation its class 

 and order, but there is no doubt that it belongs to the natural 

 order of Terebinthacece, nearly related to the division Ju- 



* Communicated to the Linnaean SoQiety, and read June 6, 1 837. 



