USES OF THE BRAZIL-NUT TREE 



BY C. H. PEARSON 



THE Brazil-nut tree, called in botanical language, 

 BertlwUetia excelsa, is one of the most remarkable 

 plants belonging to the monkey pot family It 

 forms a lofty tree with spreading branches and with a 

 thick rough bark. Its stem averages a hundred feet 

 in height and from two to four feet in diameter. The 

 branches do not appear until near the top where they 

 extend outward and up- 

 ward in an irregular fash- 

 ion as shown in the illus- 

 tration. Its leaves are 

 undivided, arranged alter- 

 nately upon the branches, 

 about two feet long and 

 from five to six inches wide 

 of a brilliant green. The 

 flowers are yellowish white, 

 more or less inconspicuous, 

 and the fruit, which is 

 produced in the upper 

 branches, is a massive, 

 round, hard-shelled pod 

 from four to six inches in 

 diameter. 



This gigantic tree in the 

 South American forests 

 forms immense stretches 

 of forests along the Ama- 

 zon and Rio Negro rivers, 

 and likewise about Esmer- 

 aldas on the Orinoco. The 

 range of the Brazil-nut 

 tree is not well-known, but 

 it is one of a kind very 

 extensive in the country, 

 i. e., those of which both 

 the timber and the fruit 

 are largely available. The 

 majority of the timber 

 trees of Brazil do not yield 

 fruit eaten by man ; while 

 the majority of their fruits are obtained from plants not 

 yielding available timber. The Brazil-nut tree affords 

 in its lumber, its fruit, and its bark many useful jiroducts 

 which attract our attention. 



The wood obtained from the Brazil-nut is highly 

 esteemed in Brazil for building and naval construction 

 and for works exposed to the soil and air. It is hard, 

 heavy, strong and tough and splits with a straight, clean 

 fracture though not so easily as a good many other 

 woods of equal weight and hardness. The wood has a 

 long fiber and is noted for its toughness and durability. 

 It is light brown, tinged with red and turns slightly 



782 



A S.\I.\LL CLU.MP OF BR.\ZIL NUT TREES 



This tree averages a hundred feet 

 feet in diameter. It is most useful, 

 yield valuable commercial products. 



darker with age. Considering its hardness the wood 

 works well and takes a very good polish, which it retains. 

 There is an almost inexhaustible supply of this wood 

 and the large forests have scarcely been touched with 

 an ax. 



As described above, the fruit of the Brazil-nut tree 

 is an excessively hard-shelled pod which contains from 



eighteen to twenty-four 

 edible seeds, so beautifully 

 packed in the shell that 

 when once removed it is 

 impossible to replace them. 

 Although they are called 

 nuts they are not nuts in 

 the botanical sense ; in the 

 trade they are generally 

 so considered. Brazil, Para 

 and cream nuts are a few 

 of the more common trade 

 designations. Originally 

 these seeds were exported 

 chiefly from Para, and, 

 therefore, came to be called 

 Para nuts. In Venezuela 

 both the trees and the nuts 

 are called juvia and in Bra- 

 zil the Portuguese name for 

 the seeds is castanheiro or 

 castaiiheiro do Para. This 

 name has been corrupted to 

 castanha, meaning nut, and 

 the term castanhal, means 

 nut orchard. 



The gathering of these 

 seeds is an important in- 

 dustry in Brazil. Mr. C. 

 F. Carter in the Decem- 

 ber issue of the South 

 American, gives a very 

 interesting description of 

 the manner of gather- 

 ing the seeds. He says : 



"Early in January, the harvesting parties set out 

 to gather the crop. As the only means of transporta- 

 tion in North Brazil is by water, these parties travel 

 in canoes up the smaller tributaries to the castanhals. 

 Arrived there, the pods are assembled at the foot of 

 the trees, and broken open with the machete, after 

 which the nuts are carried in baskets to the canoes 

 which, when loaded, are taken down the small streams 

 to the larger rivers navigable by steamboats. As the 

 river steamers are unable either to maintain regular 

 schedules or await the arrival of gathering parties with 



in height of stem, and two to four 

 for its lumber, fruit and even bark 



