A NATURALIST IN BRAZIL 



large, glossy, digitated leaves give it a monumental appearance 

 (Plate 22). It can readily be grown from shoots. The white pulp 

 of the great beaded fruits is cut into slices and fried ; it is a good 

 substitute for fried potatoes. If it is eaten daily, however, one soon 

 tires of its rather insipid flavour. 



I might speak of a pumpkin with orange-coloured pulp, a favourite 

 vegetable in Brazil, or of the artichokes and gherkins ; but I will 

 now conclude this survey, in which, as regards the fruits of Brazil, 

 I have not attempted to do more than mention the most important. 

 Most of the uncultivated trees even, including the palms, have 

 edible fruits, so that the forest provides the wanderer with many 

 delicacies unknown to us in Europe; and in the botanical gardens 

 of Rio the fruit often lies in such quantities on the grass that whole 

 troops of children might feast on it. In this fruitful country, and 

 especially in the north, the feeling prevails that it would be un- 

 becoming to rebuke anyone who, on passing a garden, should reach 

 over the hedge and pluck fruit in order to eat it. The opinion, 

 deriving from a freer and wealthier age, or perhaps from Paradise 

 itself, that the eating of fruit is a human right, is not yet extinct 

 in Brazil. 



