135 



produce a small berryj containing two or three 

 kidney-shaped seeils. 



The expressed juice of the palqui (cestrum 

 nocturnum) is considered as the best known re- 

 medy for inflammatory fevers ; it is bitter and 

 of an unpleasant taste, but very cool and re- 

 freshing. The leaves of this shrub were for- 

 merly considered by the husbandmen as poison- 

 ous to cattle, but modern experiments have 

 proved the unfoundedness of this opinion. In 

 its appearance and smell the palqui resembles the 

 elder, but the leaves are single, alternate and ob- 

 long ; the flowers are corymblc, yellow, and 

 like those of the jessamin, and ihe berries oval 

 and of a purple colour. The wood is very brit- 

 tle, but is preferred to any other by the Indians 

 for the purpose of producing fire by friction ac- 

 cording to their custom. This is done by turning 

 rapidly between their hands a small stick of this 

 wood in a hole made in another piece of the same 

 kind. 



Among the shrubs used for medicinal purposes 

 is also the cassia ''ena, \vhich is in no way difi'er- 

 ent from that of the Levant. It grows in abun- 

 dance near the source of the river Maypo. Sage 

 U likewise found in ojanv places, particularly in 

 tlie low grounds near the sea. 



SccT. Vin. 7'm.s'. The forests of Chili 

 oHer a. gT<.';i.t variety of trec^, the most of \Nhich 



k4 



