A NATURALIST IN BRAZIL 



or singly, it is found even farther south. But extensive coconut 

 plantations, such as I saw in Ceylon, do not yet exist in Brazil, 

 nor is this serviceable palm-tree exploited in a wholesale fashion. 

 In India, not only are the dried kernels collected as copra and 

 pressed in order to extract the oil, but an oil is prepared even from 

 the fresh kernels, which solidifies at a temperature of 79°, and 

 reaches Europe in the form of coconut butter. Arrak is manu- 

 factured from the sweet sap which flows from the severed flower- 

 spathe, and the fibres of the husk (coir) are employed in the 

 manufacture of nets, mats, hammocks, etc. The timber of the 

 trunk, which grows to a height of ninety or a hundred feet, is 

 employed in house-building, while the huge leaves, which are so 

 heavy that it is difficult to lift even a single one, are employed as a 

 roof-covering. On the coast of Pernambuco I saw only one large 

 coconut plantation in the south; and another was situated to the 

 north of Recife. 



If one trudges up the sandy escarpment of the beach of Pernambuco 

 and makes one's way between the shafts of the groves of coconut- 

 palms, one comes, as a rule, to a dense wood, springing from the 

 sand, in which cashew-trees are in the majority (Plate 9). The 

 large oval leaves of these trees are bright green, with yellow ribs ; 

 the younger leaves have a reddish hue, but all alike are thick and 

 leathery in texture, and have the glossy upper surface which is 

 common to the foliage of most of the tropical trees. But the light, 

 rather bluish green of the crowns of the cashew-trees in such a wood 

 is especially beautiful, and if one looks along the coast from one of 

 the hills about Olinda, the emerald sea and the yellow sand, 

 bordered by the coconut-palms of the dunes, and behind them 

 the expanse of light green foliage of the cashew-trees, make up 

 a most cheerful and harmonious scene. 



The fruit of the cashew-tree is peculiar. It consists of two parts, 

 a pear and a kidney-shaped nut which hangs beneath the pear 

 (Fig. i). The pear, which when ripe assumes a reddish flesh-colour, 

 has a sour-sweet flavour not unlike that of an apple, but it draws 

 the mouth, being rich in tannin. It is prudent to suck this un- 

 commonly juicy fruit in one's morning bath, as the juice, if it falls 

 on one's linen, leaves an indelible stain. When one has sucked it 

 only the skin is left, but hanging from the skin is the nut, which is, 

 of course, the actual fruit, for the pear is only an enlargement of 

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