OVALLE S HISTORICAL RELATION OF CHILE. 



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bigger, and much more the mulberry -trees, and walnut-trees ; though as to their fruit, 

 it is not fo large as that of Europe, the nuts having the fhell as thick again, and by 

 confequence lefs meat. This is as to the garden-trees brought from Europe. 



As for the trees natural to that country, they are of two forts, the one is fruit-trees, 

 the other not : of the firft, I find only three kinds or fpecies of thofe, which are 

 likewife in Europe, which are the avellanos, or hafel-nut, the pine-tree, and the algar- 

 rabos, or cod-tree. Of thofe which are not properly fruit-trees, there are the laurel, 

 the oak, the willow, the cyprefs, which are in great abundance, and very large ; out 

 of thefe they have boards very fit for boxes and trunks, which are no ways pieced, 

 but of one plank ; the doors and coverings of the churches are alfo of this cyprefs- 

 wood. 



Thefe trees grow moft commonly in the precipices of the Cordillera, which being 

 ▼ery deep, the cyprefTes are extremely large and tall, for they fhoot up till their tops 

 can be warmed by the fun-beams ; fo that they are as ftraight as a wax-candle, and of 

 fo fine a fmell and perfume, that though it be fo plentiful, it bears a good price, and a 

 greater in Peru, to which it is carried, as well as the cedar, which does not fell fo 

 well, becaufe there are more of them. 



Thefe cedar-trees are without comparifon bigger, and have larger heads than the 

 cyprefs-trees, and of one of them are made feveral planks ; but more of this when we 

 come to fpeak of the illand of (^ihiloe, for there they are larger than in any other part. 

 The colour of the wood is red when it is firft worked, but in time, and by degrees, it 

 lofes that lively colour, and comes to be of a kind of walnut-tree colour ; the planks are 

 of the fafhion of cedar planks, not fo fubjed: to the worm, but more eafy to work. 



The oak alfo yields very large planks, for they thrive exceedingly, and grow very 

 thick ; fome of them are white, and the wood of them is corruptible ; others are red, 

 and incorruptible. 



The planks from the Paragua-tree are the moft in ufe, but lefs valuable. The 

 tree is a handfome branching tree, keeping its leaves green all the year f they are like 

 elms. 



The moft common wood of all, and that of which there is moft plenty, which 

 ferves for the covering of houfes and roofs, is the cinnamon-wood. Thefe are very large 

 trees, of a beautiful afped ; they keep their leaves all the year, and are like that which 

 in Italy they call the laurel-royal. The Guayac-tree is bred in the mountain or Cor- 

 dillera, and from thence has its hardnefs and heavinefs, which is fuch, that it is like 

 iron ; and the balls made of it to play at billiard, are almoft as hard as the ivory ones ; 

 the tree is no large tree, and the heart of the wood is a yellow mixed with greeti ; the 

 decodion of it is good for many infirmities. The fandal-tree is very odoriferous ; there 

 are great quantities of them in the iflands which are named from Juan Fernandes ; it 

 is a prefervative againft the plague, and is ufed by the confeflbrs, and others, who are 

 bound to approach infeded people. There are other trees and ftirubs of admirable 

 virtue, for feveral infirmities, of which the Indians have a particular knowledge, and 

 perform admirable cures with them. 



The fruit-trees bred in the mountains are many, and of great variety : let us firft 

 treat of that which indeed carries the palm, not only becaufe of its name, but that 

 its height, beauty, and abundance, and that of its moft excellent fruit, challenges the 

 firft place among all the reft. 



They grow generally upon the mountains, and in precipices, fo thick together, that 

 feeing them at a diftance, one would think they were a clump fet by hand ; they 

 are very thick and high j all the body of the tree is naked till the top or firft fprout ; 



its 



