30 AMAZONIA AND LA PLATA. 



than that of tropical fire-flies and of other luminous insects, but brighter than 

 that emitted by decaying timber. 



Amongst alimentary plants are the wild cacao, several varieties of edible 

 passionworts, wild pine-apples, some sap-yielding palms, the marantaceœ from 

 which arrowroot is extracted, the twelve varieties of manioc, the euphorbiacea 

 from which cassava, coac, and the so-called paiourai beverage are prepared, the 

 carambola {ùvcrrhoa c), the tuka {berfholetia excclm), whose fruits, resembling a 

 cannon ball, and about the size of a man's head, contains in four cells six or eiffht 

 of the excellent Brazil or Para nuts. 



The " traveller's tree " of Madagascar is represented in the Guiunas by the 

 ravcnala guiaucnsis, a wild plantain with enormous leaves shooting up from near 

 the ground to a height of 10 or even 15 feet. " The bases of the leaf- stalks " 

 sheath the one over the other, and in the pockets formed by each of these sheath- 

 ing parts much rainwater is retained even through the dry season. Another 

 noticeable feature in these plants is that the seeds within the tough thin shell 

 of the fruit are packed in a large quantity of short fibrous substance like clippings 

 of wool, in the Guiana species of brightest scarlet colour, but in the Madagascar 

 plant of blue. — {Im T/nirji.) 



In the coast region are met the oleaginous, medicinal, resinous, and aromatic 

 species of Amazonia, and room might still be found for all those of equatorial Africa. 

 The awara {nffri/ea speciosa), a member of the palm family, yields an oil as valuable 

 as that of the Guinea oil-palm, which was introduced into Guiana in 18C6. Other 

 kinds, such as the carapa guijanensis, whose nuts contain as much as 70 per cent, 

 of their weight in oil, the wax-tree {virola sahifem), and the incorruptible wapa 

 (famariiid/isindica), also offer industrial resources hitherto scarcely utilised ; the 

 same may be s;iid of the 150 species and upwards of medicinal plants, all contain- 

 ing valuable properties in their wood, sap, roots, leaves, flowers, or fruits. 



Amongst the caoutchoucs and others yielding gums and rubber of the gutta- 

 percha type, noteworthy is the halata {ac/mis or mimiisops halafa), the " bullet- 

 tree " of English writers, whose sap is at once elastic and ductile. Like Arabia, 

 Guiana has also its incense tree, the hyawa {idea heptaplujUa), which is burnt in 

 the churches on the coastlands. " Where the hvawa tree otows, the whole air for 

 some distance round is pleasant and wholesome with the incense-like odour of the 

 white resin that drops from its stem and falls iu masses on the ground ; and a 

 still more powerfuliy-scented resin, which coats the trunk of another tree, the 

 tauranero of the Indians {hiimirimn florihundiiw, Mart.), seems to imitate and sur- 

 pass the odour of vanilla." — {lin Thurn.) 



The natives have brought to the notice of the whites numerous dyewoods, such 

 as the rucu and the lena {rjenipa americana), and others abounding in tannin. 

 With the fibres of hundreds of plants, from the palm to the pine-apple, they 

 weave a thousand different textile fabrics, which are used for endless purposes. 

 Altogether this region holds in reserve a prodigious storehouse of raw materials, 

 all available for the industrial arts. 



Guiana also abounds in timber and cabinet woods, which it is to be feared 



