25 



able plant ; his chairs and tables are often made of the long and straight 

 stems, which are hard and ornamental, being in fact the beautiful porcu- 

 pine and speckled woods of our hard-wood merchants : the former is the 

 name applied to the longitudinal sections of the stem, which have a 

 beautiful striped appearance as if composed of small porcupine quills, the 

 latter to transverse sections which are most curiously covered with dots 

 formed by sections of the bundles of vascular tissue ; in this country 

 both are used for inlaying. He also forms his drinking cups of the 

 endocarp or hard shell of the nut, these will receive a high polish, and 

 are made by the ingenuity of various tribes into many ornamental 

 domestic implements and utensils, as spoons, ladles, cups, basins, &c. ; 

 the kernel yields him an agreeable beverage, a pleasant food, and a 

 valuable oil ; his cellar is stocked with wine made by fermenting the 

 juice obtained by cutting the young spadix, and his most highly 

 prized vegetable is the young shoot of central leaves called the palm 

 cabbage. 



This wonderful utility of the cocoa nut palm has caused it to be 

 carried from its native country the East Indies to South America and 

 the West Indies. It may be worth mentioning that many botanists 

 have remarked upon the shape of this fruit, which seems admirably 

 adapted for transmission by ocean currents — certainly its boat-like 

 shape, having a keel and flat deck wliich ever way it falls, and its 

 natural habitat the seaside, seem to favour this charming idea. 



The other species of cocoas, seventeen in number, are all natives of 

 South America, and are not remarkable for their utility. 



Of the South American genus Bactris (Jacquin), only one species, 

 the Bactris maraja, yields a useful product ; its fruits are eatable. 

 This fruit which I now exhibit, is used as a food in two ways ; it 

 has an agreeable subacid mesocarp, which is both eaten and made 

 into a fermented drink, and the kernel has a pleasant cocoa-nut 

 flavour. 



AcROCOMiA Lasiospatha (Martius), the Mucaja of the Brazilian 

 aborigines, has a fruit which, though oily and bitter, is much relished 

 by the Indians. 



AsTKocAKYUM (Meyer), South America, has several useful species. 



Mr. Wallace says that the cattle are very fond of the fruit of Astro- 

 caryum murumuru (Martius), and will wander for days in the forest iii 

 search of it ; the kernels are nearly as hard as vegetable ivory and 

 pass through their stomachs undigested ; of these hard kernels the pigs 

 arc equally fond, and on one estate where he had staid on the Amazon, 

 they had scarcely anything to cat during a part of the year but those 

 nuts which had passed through the stomachs of the cows. 



