330 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I02 



tree with thick foliage ; it bears fruit the whole year through, shaped 

 like a medium-sized melon, and red, with seeds like peppercorns 

 and a taste like cress ; it is good for the digestion, 



984. There is a very tall cup-shaped tree whose fruit looks like a 

 hand, and is very sweet and palatable ; very tall chestnut trees with 

 burrs of the size of pomegranates and three or four chestnuts in 

 each. The guabo or coxiniquil comes in two or three varieties ; its 

 fruit grows in pods like beans, some half a yard long and others 

 less; the substance is inside the pod, white as snow, and very sweet 

 and spongy ; inside are soft seeds like green beans. There is another 

 tree like the almond, which produces beans as large as chestnuts. 

 The caeque tree is very tall and stocky ; its fruit is like a peach and 

 of the same size. 



985. As for the granadilla (passionflower), the vines producing 

 this fruit are like ivy ; they wind around and cover a tall reed fence 

 or climb a tree to which they hang fast. The fruit is like an egg, but 

 somewhat larger ; when ripe, the skin is yellow ; they are very fra- 

 grant and palatable. The inside is very sweet, and liquid like the 

 white of an egg, with some small seeds, which are swallowed with it. 

 There are walnut trees in quantity in the woods. The jagua (inaja) 

 tree has sap which is white and crystal-clear, but dyes black as ink. 

 There are quantities of very fragrant cedars ; maria trees, with tough 

 timber red as cochineal ; guaiacum, whose wood is indestructible and 

 has medicinal value ; the cariuri, with tough and highly prized timber ; 

 the namore tree, with valuable timber; trees from which they get 

 turpentine ; the canime, copal, benzoin, balsam, and liquidambar trees. 



986. The acuapa tree is poisonous ; whoever sleeps under its shade 

 gets swellings. They have ebony and brazilwood trees ; palms which 

 bear fruit called cachepais, excellent to eat ; others whose wood is 

 black as ebony, and very tough and harmful ; the Indians make their 

 weapons out of it, and pilgrim's staffs of it are exported to Spain. 

 There is another tree called caimito ; its fruit is like that of the 

 strawberry tree, and the kernels roasted look and taste like chickpeas. 

 There are aguacates, or paltas. There is another tree with stringy 

 bark, from which they make thread and rope just as from henequen. 

 The tree which is a giant among the others is the ceiba ; it is very tall 

 and straight, rounded and with thick foliage. Every month its leaves 

 drop off and new ones come. They are so large that from the hollow 

 of one trunk they fashion a dugout which will carry 6oo jars of wine 

 and 50 or 60 men and all the food and drink they need for a sea 

 voyage. 



