BY VICENTE DE CERVANTES. 233 



nlcal writers, there are some other trees not so 

 well understood, that produce the substance in 

 question, such as those of which Mr. Fresnau, 

 whilst engineer at Cayenne, communicated the 

 descriptions to the academy of sciences at Paris, 

 who published them in their memoirs for the year 

 1751. 



Among these we find the Mapa or Amapa, of 

 which, however, no description is given by Mr. 

 Fresnau, except that it is a very lofty tree of con- 

 siderable thickness, with smooth bark and leaves 

 resembling those of the Dutch lime-tree, but 

 rather larger. 



The juice of this tree, mixed in equal quantities 

 with that of Comacay, a species of Ficus, produces, 

 according to Mr. Fresnau, a sort of leather; a 

 similar result, he says, takes place in mixing three 

 parts of the juice of the same Comacay, with two 

 parts of the milk from a sort of pear-tree, called 

 Couma by the Portuguese of Para.* 



* This is certainly a species of Ficus, as the fruit rcprefented in the 

 Memanra del'acaJank roy. Jts tdtnou 1 75 1, pi. 19. fig. 4. clearly shows; 

 but whether it be Plumie&'s Fiats folio titni a:utiori,fructu -oirUi, or 

 some other of the unsettled jpecijs. of this renus, requires further inves'.i. 

 station, T. 



