442 THE PAPAW TREE. 



and figure of the Hevea. This tree attains a height of 50 to 70 feet. 

 The almond enclosed in the kernels of its fruits is white, of a very 

 agreeable taste, and much esteemed by the Indians, who also extract 

 from it an oil for seasoning their food. 



The Banana, the American Agave, the Bamboo, and divers 

 Palm-trees supply the inhabitants of South America with suitable 

 materials for the fabrication of various tissues, from the finest and 

 most brilliant linen cloth to the rude mats which ornament the cabin 

 of the savage. Trees bearing fruits or edible roots are innumerable. 

 To the Bananas and Cocoa-trees which I have already mentioned, we 

 may add, as the most useful, the Maranteas or Canneas, especially the 

 Maranta arundinacea, M. alloya, and M. nobilis, whose roots, rasped 

 and washed, constitute the popular and valuable farina so widely 

 known as Arrow-root ; the Guavas (Psidium pyriferum, and P. 

 pomiferum), whose gilded fruits contain a succulent and perfumed 

 pulp ; the Papaw tree (Carica papaya), resembling the Palm in its 

 port and aspect, and also loaded with large yellowish fruit, whose flesh 

 is exceedingly savoury and aromatic. The Papaw, moreover, enjoys 

 some extremely remarkable properties ; thus, its milky juice exhales, 

 when burnt, an ammoniacal odour, and chemical analysis has recog- 

 nized therein the presence of fibrine. Mix some of this juice in 

 water, plunge into the mixture fresh hard meat, and in a few moments 

 it will become exquisitely tender. The very exhalations of the tree 

 operate in the same manner, and the inhabitants of the regions where 

 it nourishes suspend to its branches such meat and poultry as they 

 wish to soften. 



The immense forests of Brazil and Guiana are for the whole world 

 an inexhaustible storehouse of woods for dyeing and cabinet work. 

 They spread their dense masses of foliage along the borders of the 

 sea, where the Mangroves (Kkizopkora mangle) plunge their adventi- 

 tious roots into the mud inundated by the surging tides of those 

 regions, and form a kind of impenetrable palisade, behind which grow 

 in infinite variety trees of the costliest timber. Such are the Swietenice, 



