field had been made by the Indians in three days (Alto- 
laguirre y Duvale, 1908, 310), near the fortress of Buena 
Guardia, of which, one hundred years later, not a rem- 
nant was to be seen (Michelena y Rojas, 1867, 162, 855). 
On their trip to the upper Orinoco in 1800, Humboldt 
and Bonpland found tupiro at San Fernando of Atabapo, 
the type locality of the material on which the first de- 
scription of the species was based. Humboldt included 
Solanum Topiro amongst the common plants in the area 
between the Javité and Pimichin Rivers (Humboldt, 
1942, IV, 178). Making use, probably, of the works of 
those two authors, Lisandro Alvarado drew up the fol- 
lowing description: ‘‘7'upiro. Solanum Topiro. Shrub 
with herbaceous, tomentose stem; leaves subovate, acute, 
sinuate-angulated, unequal at the base, thickly haired 
above, lightly grey-tomentose below; flowers extra- 
axillary, aggregate; berries ovate, tetralocular, edible. 
Blossoming in May. It is called also tépiro’’ (Alvarado, 
1953, 345). This form, accented on the antepenult, is 
given by Tavera Acosta (1954, 218). 
In a recent paper, Schultes attributes to Solanum 
Topiro the cocona from eastern Peru and mentioned by 
Fennel and other authors (Schultes, 1958, 281-282; 
Fennel, 1948, 181-182). Ricardo Latcham, listing sev- 
eral fruit-bearing species used by Amazonian tribes, 
mentioned—without quoting sources—the ‘‘cocona, that 
bears a berry similar to an orange’’ (Latcham, 19386, 
65-66, 72). 
The following statement appears on the naranjilla of 
eastern Ecuador in a recent work: ‘‘There are three 
kinds: the two acid (known in the east under the names 
of huevo de tigre (*‘puma testicle’’) and cocona, and the 
other one common with us [in the highlands], bitter- 
sweet and very agreeable, especially for beverages, pre- 
serves, ices, sherbets, not to mention its use as an edible 
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