CHAPTER VII. 



BABASSU AND PARAGUAY KERNELS AND 

 MISCELLANEOUS OIL-NUTS. 



A RECENT type of kernel, known as Coco babassu and 

 bassoba, is derived from a species of Attalea, possibly 

 A. funifera, Mart. The tree is stated to be abundant 

 in the State of Maranham, Brazil (Dipt, and Cons. Reps., 

 Ann. Ser., No. 5,526 ; Report on the Trade of Para, 1914). 

 Considerable quantities of Babassu kernels have been 

 exported lately, the quantity in 1916 amounting to 

 nearly 1,500 tons. The greater part of the kernels appear 

 to have been obtained by hand-shelling, the nuts being 

 placed on end in a hole in a board and struck with an 

 axe ; but British machinery for shelling the nuts is 

 stated to have been introduced. 



The kernels have been crushed on a fairly large scale 

 in this country, and there seems to be every prospect of 

 increased supplies being brought here. They are said to 

 have been sold at about 2 per ton less than the price 

 paid for good copra. 



The fruit weighs on an average about 45 grams, and 

 consists of an outer fibrous pericarp enclosing a hard- 

 shelled nut containing several kernels. A single fruit 

 examined at the Imperial Institute contained five kernels, 

 but, from the size and formation of the kernels as exported 

 from Brazil, this is perhaps an unusually large number. 



The kernels are reddish-brown, and of a characteristic 



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